Bird of the Year - Plover

The Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) mainly inhabits our natural landscapes on the seashore and sea islands. The population of the Ringed Plover has contracted from at least 8,000 couples to 1,000 or 2,000 during the past 50 years. Perhaps disappearance of suitable places of nestling on the seashore and robbery are some of the reasons why we find the Ringed Plover more and more frequently nestling in the inland. The Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius) as a typical inland snipe populates mainly manmade places such as gravel pits, limestone quarries etc. Although the global contraction in the population of the species is connected with climate change, the link between the intensiveness of human activity and the population of the Little Ringed Plover is clearly positive. On the basis of recent population assessments there are 1,000 to 2,000 pairs of Little Ringed Plovers nestling in Estonia.