Wilson's Plover
The Wilson's Plover is a small species of shorebird found across parts of the Americas. Unlike some other small banded shorebirds, the Wilson's Plover is strictly coastal. Portions of the population are migratory, while birds in places like Florida and Caribbean islands remain year-round.
Wilson's Plovers have brownish backs, white underparts, and a dark band (black in breeding males) across the chest. They have relatively thick bills, which helps birders distinguish them from other similarly banded small shorebirds.
The Wilson's Plover has a conservation status of Least Concern as of July 2014, though the population trend is thought to be decreasing. They face threats of disturbance and degradation to their breeding and wintering habitats.
Details & Statistics
- Least Concern (LC)
- Near Threatened (NT)
- Vulnerable (VU)
- Endangered (EN)
- Critically Endangered (CR)
- Extinct in the Wild (EW)
- Extinct (EX)
Conservation
The Wilson's Plover is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size may be small, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
International Names
