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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 (species level and race hiaticula, 25–50% decline, >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
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 already in 1984 were largely confined in some regions 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). Wintering numbers have been in decline since the late 1980s (Calbrade et al. 2010).
 
Population changes in detail
 
Demographic trends
 
Additional information
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This report should be cited as: Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Leech, D.I., Renwick, A.R., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G., Barimore, C., Conway, G.J., Downie, I.S., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2010). Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2010. BTO Research Report No. 565. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2010