Christian Hoefs

Small plover breeding in the tundra from Scotland across Siberia to western Alaska, also on mountain tops in Central Europe, the Urals and southern Siberia. Winters in the rocky plains of North Africa and the Middle East. Uses open farmland and steppe across Europe during migration.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendUnknown
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		21100-43100,31300
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Eurasian Dotterel

Most ring recoveries connect stopover sites to breeding or wintering grounds. Migration has been tracked with geolocators deployed on the breeding grounds (Aarvak et al. 2019), and recently with GPS tags deployed on a Mediterranean migration stopover. The tracking data indicate a straight N-S flyway in autumn. Indeed, birds stopping in Crau, southern France, cross the Mediterranean rather than following the coastline. There are insufficient recovery data to see differences between birds originating from Scotland, Scandinavia or the Alps, although Scottish Dotterel winter on average further west than Fenno‐Scandian birds (Whitfield et al. 1996, Pulliainen & Saari 1993).An eastern-Finnish bird migrated through Ukraine then wintered in Libya, returning via Cyprus then the Caucasus region (Aarvak et al. 2019).

Recoveries by Condition for Eurasian Dotterel

 Overall ~40% of recoveries are of birds found dead, with the percentage reducing over time, although there are very few recoveries up to 1960.  Many of the dead recoveries are shot as Dotterel is potentially a confusion species with other game plovers. From 1991, most recoveries have been of birds recaptured by ringers or seen alive (70%).

Annual Movements for Eurasian Dotterel

GPS-tracked juveniles largley left southern France between mid-Sep and mid-Oct (the latest early Nov), flying directly to the south over the sea, overflying the Balearic Islands to wintering grounds in Algeria or Morocco.  Some stopped-over for a few weeks in Murcia in Spain. A GPS-tracked Finnish bird left the breeding grounds at the end of Aug and reached Libya in early Oct, while the spring migration started early Apr and was more rapid, taking about six weeks.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Eurasian Dotterel

Dotterels are still on their breeding grounds in Jul, start to move south in Aug, with most movements in Sep. Birds are spread across stopover sites in SW, C and S Europe in Oct. Arrivals on African wintering grounds occur as early as the end of Aug, but mostly in Oct, all birds having left Europe by mid-Nov. Spring return migration is rapid, in Apr; there are no recoveries during this period, although a bird was ringed on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Most recoveries occur in Jun and Jul in the N.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Aarvak, T., Timonen, S., Gjerstad, D., Väisänen, R., Pasanen, E.2019 . Light-logger mapping of migratory connectivity of Dotterels breeding in alpine Fennoscandia. https://www.birdlife.no/innhold/bilder/2019/10/07/6399/nofs_poster_om_boltit_pa_iswg.pdf
Pulliainen, E., Saari, L.1993 . Ring recoveries of Finnish Dotterels Charadrius morinellus. Wader Study Group Bulletin 67
Whitfield, D.P., Duncan, K., Pullan, D., Smith, R.D.1996 . Recoveries of Scottish‐ringed Dotterel Charadrius morinellus in the non‐breeding season: Evidence for seasonal shifts in wintering distribution. Ringing & Migration 17 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03078698.1996.9674125) : 105–110

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