15 thoughts on “Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)”
Italian wintering population 2011-2020, mean 6099 inds, 90% at the top 5 wetlands, TRIM: moderate increase (vs. 1993-2020, strong increase). May have locally benefited protection from hunting of this and other large waders coastal waders since the 90ies.
Along the Pacific and Caribbean coast of Colombia, this shorebird is quite common from October to April, however, it is not a very abundant species on the Caribbean coast. This plover uses the Pacific migratory flyways of the Americas and the most important site is at the mouth of the Iscuandé River of the WHSRN. The populations found along the Caribbean coast could probably be affected by the development of beaches and wetlands.
Declined to disappeared from the breeding ground in the Chaun delta, Chukotka, Russia, based on annual shorebird nest search on plots (5 plots, 0.16 ha each). Last time breeding was recorded in 2011.
In population size justification: The population estimate attributed to Wetlands International (2012) is actually from Stroud, D.A., Davidson, N.C., West, R., Scott, D.A., Haanstra, L., Thorup, O., Ganter, B. and Delany, S. (compilers) on behalf of the International Wader Study Group 2002. Status of migratory wader populations in Africa and Western Eurasia in the 1990s.
The max. IWC count in the wintering range of the SW Asian & E African population is around 17,000, but a large part of the wintering range was not covered by counts. Hence, we retain the estimate of Stroud et al. (2002).
Trend analysis results for the E, SE Asia & Australia population available here: https://iwc-wi.shinyapps.io/eaaf_trends/. This shows a stable overall trend with marked decline in AU, but increases in several countries in Asia.
On Tomales Bay (California, USA) = 81% decrease over last 30 years.
Wintering populations of Black-bellied Plovers have declined locally (this study, Stenzel and Page 2018), but appear to be stable in Oregon and Washington and increasing in British Columbia
See references in
Warnock, N., S. Jennings, J. P. Kelly, E. Condeso, and D. Lumpkin. 2021. Declining wintering shorebird populations at a temperate estuary in California: a 30-year perspective. Ornithological Applications 123:1-19.
We did also detect a nonsignificant slowing of the trend between 1993-2012 and 2012-2021, suggesting the worst of the decline might have already passed in Australia.
Grey Plovers have also declined at several of Myanmar’s wintering grounds (Aung et al. 2023). This is partly due to resuming hunting pressure across all sites in Myanmar due to civil war, deteriorating over the past three years. While hunting pressure in China has visibly reduced it remains still high in Vietnam and Indonesia. Spartina growth might have diminished some stop over sites in China but unlikely explaining the big impact in the population that we see or have seen in Australia and as a potential threat for migratory. Hunting remains a high pressure on the rel. large bird in Asia. Also the decline of the populations of virtually all flyways point to issues on the Arctic region, reflecting also the high number of declining and globally threatened Arctic breeding waders to which the Grey Plover will need to be added. Considering the continuing widespread global decline the uplisting to VU seems justified.
Threats for Coasts as a habitat:
Coastal birds across India has been impacted due to various threats including habitat degradation, changes in land use, blocking of river mouths, aquaculture, and non-conventional salt production and illegal killing. This surely must have impacted species like Grey Plover that exclusively winter in this habitat.
During the 190s its number at the major umbers at the major wader site during the 1980s was around 10,000 and ringing total was 256 during 1980-1986, 87 (1987-1992) , and 78 (1998-2024). At present the numbers never exceeded 1500. Similarly other coastal sites also the numbers are declining to over 80%. The Gulf of Mannar and Rameswaram site also the ringing total during 1985-1988 was 276 but the total number occurring never exceeded 300 in recent years. As the decline was very conspicuous, this species can be included under Near-Threatened category
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments until 3 May 2024. We will now analyse and interpret all information, and we will post a preliminary decision on this species’ Red List status on this page on 3 May 2024, when discussions will re-open.
We thank all contributors for their comments, which have now been incorporated into the assessment draft in SIS for submission to IUCN. Overall, the comments appear supportive of the fact that the global population of Grey/Black-bellied Plover has rapidly declined over the past three generations. Based on available information, our preliminary proposal for the 2024 Red List would be to adopt the proposed classifications outlined in the initial forum discussion.
There is now a period for further comments until the final deadline on 13 May 2024, after which the recommended categorisations will be put forward to IUCN.
The final 2024 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in October 2024, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.
Grey plovers are sprodically distributed along coastal
Gambia, including wetlands inlands the population have not always on the high side compared to other common ladders or shore birds like spur wing plovers, common ring plovers etc
Italian wintering population 2011-2020, mean 6099 inds, 90% at the top 5 wetlands, TRIM: moderate increase (vs. 1993-2020, strong increase). May have locally benefited protection from hunting of this and other large waders coastal waders since the 90ies.
Very scattered records in Lebanon according to International Waterbird Census Reports and G. Ramadan-Jaradi and M. Ramadan-Jaradi (2001)
Along the Pacific and Caribbean coast of Colombia, this shorebird is quite common from October to April, however, it is not a very abundant species on the Caribbean coast. This plover uses the Pacific migratory flyways of the Americas and the most important site is at the mouth of the Iscuandé River of the WHSRN. The populations found along the Caribbean coast could probably be affected by the development of beaches and wetlands.
Declined to disappeared from the breeding ground in the Chaun delta, Chukotka, Russia, based on annual shorebird nest search on plots (5 plots, 0.16 ha each). Last time breeding was recorded in 2011.
In population size justification: The population estimate attributed to Wetlands International (2012) is actually from Stroud, D.A., Davidson, N.C., West, R., Scott, D.A., Haanstra, L., Thorup, O., Ganter, B. and Delany, S. (compilers) on behalf of the International Wader Study Group 2002. Status of migratory wader populations in Africa and Western Eurasia in the 1990s.
The max. IWC count in the wintering range of the SW Asian & E African population is around 17,000, but a large part of the wintering range was not covered by counts. Hence, we retain the estimate of Stroud et al. (2002).
Additional trend data for the SW Asia, E & S African population can be found here: https://iwc.wetlands.org/index.php/aewatrends8
Trend analysis results for the E, SE Asia & Australia population available here: https://iwc-wi.shinyapps.io/eaaf_trends/. This shows a stable overall trend with marked decline in AU, but increases in several countries in Asia.
On Tomales Bay (California, USA) = 81% decrease over last 30 years.
Wintering populations of Black-bellied Plovers have declined locally (this study, Stenzel and Page 2018), but appear to be stable in Oregon and Washington and increasing in British Columbia
See references in
Warnock, N., S. Jennings, J. P. Kelly, E. Condeso, and D. Lumpkin. 2021. Declining wintering shorebird populations at a temperate estuary in California: a 30-year perspective. Ornithological Applications 123:1-19.
Monitoring of migratory birds in Finland (East Atlantic flyway). Annual standardized monitoring counts from the Hanko Bird Observatory suggest short term stable (+10%; 2010-2019 -> 2020-2022) or slight long-term increase (+20%; 1979-1999 -> 2020-2022):
https://haahka.laji.fi/?_inputs_&language=%22en%22&tabs=%22species%22&species=%22Pluvialis%20squatarola%22
Similarly trends in the casual observations through the national online portal of Birdlife Finland (Tiira.fi) do suggest no signs of declines. The data has been analysed using only one observation per 100 km2 square per day: observation with the highest number of individuals during the spring / autumn migration season. The national annual sum was the additive sum of the squares from a given year. The method has been explained in
https://lintulehti.birdlife.fi:8443/pdf/artikkelit/2576/tiedosto/Linnut_VK2017_080-091_Uhanalaiset_ja_harvalukuiset_ARK_artikkelit_2576.pdf#view=FitH
Annual cumulative means
2007-2011, 2019-2023, Change %
Spring 27 047, 34 022, +26
Autumn 3 914, 5 051, +29
Slight correction to the assessment text: In the Rogers et al report, we estimated the trend over three generations at -37.04% (95CI -63.56, 8.96). See https://www.nespmarinecoastal.edu.au/publication/australias-migratory-shorebirds-trends-and-prospects/
We did also detect a nonsignificant slowing of the trend between 1993-2012 and 2012-2021, suggesting the worst of the decline might have already passed in Australia.
Please refer to the listing assessment published by the Australian Government – https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/species/pubs/865-conservation-advice-05012024.pdf
Grey Plovers have also declined at several of Myanmar’s wintering grounds (Aung et al. 2023). This is partly due to resuming hunting pressure across all sites in Myanmar due to civil war, deteriorating over the past three years. While hunting pressure in China has visibly reduced it remains still high in Vietnam and Indonesia. Spartina growth might have diminished some stop over sites in China but unlikely explaining the big impact in the population that we see or have seen in Australia and as a potential threat for migratory. Hunting remains a high pressure on the rel. large bird in Asia. Also the decline of the populations of virtually all flyways point to issues on the Arctic region, reflecting also the high number of declining and globally threatened Arctic breeding waders to which the Grey Plover will need to be added. Considering the continuing widespread global decline the uplisting to VU seems justified.
More specific information on the Grey Plover trends from India based on the State of India’s Birds report.
Current Annual Trend (from 2015 till 2022)
https://stateofindiasbirds.in/species/bkbplo/
-3.37 (-5.35, -1.38) – 95% CI in the brackets.
https://stateofindiasbirds.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/trends/originals/Grey-Plover_in_CAT_trend.png
Threats for Coasts as a habitat:
Coastal birds across India has been impacted due to various threats including habitat degradation, changes in land use, blocking of river mouths, aquaculture, and non-conventional salt production and illegal killing. This surely must have impacted species like Grey Plover that exclusively winter in this habitat.
Please see page 37 for threats on coastal birds.
https://stateofindiasbirds.in/wp-content/uploads/SoIB-2023_report.pdf
During the 190s its number at the major umbers at the major wader site during the 1980s was around 10,000 and ringing total was 256 during 1980-1986, 87 (1987-1992) , and 78 (1998-2024). At present the numbers never exceeded 1500. Similarly other coastal sites also the numbers are declining to over 80%. The Gulf of Mannar and Rameswaram site also the ringing total during 1985-1988 was 276 but the total number occurring never exceeded 300 in recent years. As the decline was very conspicuous, this species can be included under Near-Threatened category
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments until 3 May 2024. We will now analyse and interpret all information, and we will post a preliminary decision on this species’ Red List status on this page on 3 May 2024, when discussions will re-open.
Preliminary proposal
We thank all contributors for their comments, which have now been incorporated into the assessment draft in SIS for submission to IUCN. Overall, the comments appear supportive of the fact that the global population of Grey/Black-bellied Plover has rapidly declined over the past three generations. Based on available information, our preliminary proposal for the 2024 Red List would be to adopt the proposed classifications outlined in the initial forum discussion.
There is now a period for further comments until the final deadline on 13 May 2024, after which the recommended categorisations will be put forward to IUCN.
The final 2024 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in October 2024, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.
Grey plovers are sprodically distributed along coastal
Gambia, including wetlands inlands the population have not always on the high side compared to other common ladders or shore birds like spur wing plovers, common ring plovers etc