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BTO Blueline
RINGED PLOVER
Charadrius hiaticula

Ringed Plover © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: amber (25–50% decline in winter population, >20% East Atlantic Flyway population in winter)
Long-term trend
UK: decline
UK population size
8,540 pairs in 1984 (Prater 1989: APEP06, rounded to 8,600 BiE04); 5,438 (5,257–5,622) pairs in 2007 (Conway et al. 2008)
Status summary
This species was already amber-listed on the strength of its concentration within UK in the winter, but a decline in winter numbers since the late 1980s (Austin et al. 2008) adds a further amber criterion. The breeding population is not monitored annually, but a BTO survey in 1984 showed increases throughout the UK since the previous survey in 1973–74 (Prater 1989). The spread of the breeding distribution inland between the two atlas periods, especially in England, was probably associated with the increase in number of gravel pits and reservoirs (Gibbons et al. 1993). The 1984 survey revealed that over 25% of the UK population nested on the Western Isles, especially on the machair, but breeding waders there have subsequently suffered greatly from predation by introduced hedgehogs (Jackson et al. 2004) – a problem that appears increasingly severe (Jackson 2007). Surveys in England and Wales revealed an increase of 12% in breeding birds in wet meadows between 1982 and 2002 (Wilson et al. 2005). The BTO's repeat national survey in 2007 found an overall decrease in UK population of around 37% since 1984, with the greatest decreases in inland areas (Burton & Conway 2008, Conway et al. 2008, Conway & Burton 2009; click here). Ringed Plovers that choose beaches for nesting are especially vulnerable to disturbance, however, and were in some regions in 1984 largely confined to wardened reserves (Prater 1989). Human usage of beach areas severely restricts the availability of this habitat to nesting plovers (Liley & Sutherland 2007). The marked increase in nest failures at the egg stage has earned Ringed Plover a place on the NRS concern list (Leech & Barimore 2008).
 

Population changes
Annual breeding population changes for this species are not currently monitored by BTO
 

Productivity trends
Table of productivity changes for Ringed Plover

Variable Period
(yrs)		 Years Mean
annual
sample		 Trend Modelled
in first year		 Modelled
in 2006		 Change Comment
Clutch size 38 1968-2006 87 None        
Daily failure rate (eggs) 38 1968-2006 125 Linear increase 2.36% nests/day 2.85% nests/day 20.8%  
Laying date 38 1968-2006 39 None        

Clutch size graph

 

 

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species
Egg nest failure graph

 

 

Insufficient data on nestling failure
available for this species

Laying date graph

 

 

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species

 
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
 

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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Leech, D.I., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G.,
Barimore, C., Grantham, M.J., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2009).
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2008.
BTO Research Report No. 516. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2009