Sergey Dereliev

In Europe, the species favours coastal habitats (mudflats, wetlands of salt or brackish water) but is also present on inland (including arid land) freshwater wetlands. Its breeding range covers Europe (patchy coastline and inland distribution, two core areas – NW/W and SE Europe) and Asia (from E Mediterranean to C Asia and NE China) (Carboneras, Kirwan, 2020).

Intra-Eurasian partial migrant. Largely resident in W Europe and locally in C & S Europe, well defined moult migration of W European birds to aggregations in the Wadden Sea and elsewhere. Scattered wintering grounds at lower latitudes, S to N Africa.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		104000-154000,124000
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 Common Shelduck

Populations in W Europe, as well as locally in C & S Europe largely resident, the species is migratory in N & E Europe. The migratory strategy in many Shelduck populations (adults only) is “breeding sites – moulting location – breeding sites”, where they spend the remainder of the non-breeding period (the return can be gradual or direct) (Patterson 1982). Juveniles do not undertake such moult migrations as they do not moult their flight/ tail feathers (Wernham et al. 2002). Breeding birds from NW, W & N Europe are encountered during their moulting stage and winter in the North Sea region and along the coasts of W Europe. Data from E Europe suggest NE – SW movements, some birds from the Black/Caspian Sea region are encountered wintering in C & E Mediterranean. The wintering grounds of the Icelandic population are still unknown (Tierney et al. 2020).

Recoveries by Condition for Common Shelduck

Protected species throughout most of Europe, game species in Russia but apparently not intensively hunted. Most encounters recorded in NW & W Europe (ca. 80%). Before 1960 about 22% of all recoveries were from dead birds as a result of shooting/ hunting; due to species protection this factor was subsequently reduced largely to just less than 1% after 1991. Inversely, the share of alive ringing recoveries significantly increased to nearly half (49%) of all recoveries after 1991. In total, the recoveries based on alive birds after 1991 constituted ca. 90% of the whole dataset (11% coming from colour ringing projects).

Most encounters are obtained after 2000. About half of all encounters (ca. 54%) are obtained in Dec-Mar.

Very limited number of encounters from SE Europe.

Annual Movements for Common Shelduck

Adults usually show high level of breeding site-fidelity and most of them are sedentary during Apr-Jun (Patterson 1982). The species undergoes a flightless wing-moult lasting about a month in late summer and autumn at suitable locations where big concentrations are formed (North, Black and Caspian Seas, locally on British Isles) (Kistchinski 1979, Wernham et al. 2002). Tracking study of four birds having moult migration from UK to Wadden Sea revealed a mean flight speed of 30.3 knots and altitudes of up to 354 m (Green et al. 2019). Moult migration/ post-breeding dispersion starts in Jul but it is more evident in Aug. After moulting the birds can either stay on the moulting sites during winter, or continue to other wintering sites or return to their breeding sites to overwinter.

Very cold winters could induce long-distance movements further S (Scott, Rose, 1996).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Shelduck

Most birds from NW, W & N Europe, even some from the Mediterranean parts of Spain and France, are encountered at their common moulting areas in the Wadden Sea from late summer to mid-spring, and along the Atlantic coasts of W Europe mostly in autumn and winter. Regarding E European populations, some birds from the Baltic Sea region are subsequently encountered SW from their breeding grounds – in the North Sea region, from late summer to mid-spring (mostly during the winter). Similarly, some birds from the Black/ Caspian Sea region are heading SW in late autumn and winter, reaching the C & E Mediterranean (incl. N Africa). Very few C European birds take SE routes towards Balkan Peninsula where are encountered during winter.

The birds wintering in Caspian Sea originate from C Asia (Kistchinski 1979).

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2002 . The Migration Atlas: movements of the birds of Britain and Ireland. T. & A.D. Poyser, LondonEditor(s): Wernham, C.V., Toms, M.P., Marchant, J.H., Clark, J.A., Siriwardena, G.M., Baillie, S.R.
Carboneras, C. and G. M. Kirwan2020 . Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
Green, R.M.W., Burton, N.H.K., Cook, A.S.C.P. 2019 . Species factsheet: Plegadis falcinellus. 34Ringing & Migration: 71–83
Kistchinski, A. A. 1979 . Migrations of Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna). In: Migrations of birds of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia: Ciconiiformes – Anseriformes Nauka, MoscowEditor(s): Ilichev, V. : 214–228
Patterson, I.J1982 . The Shelduck. The University Press, Cambridge, England.
Scott, D. A., Rose, P. M. 1996 . Atlas of Anatidae Populations in Africa and Western Eurasia. Wetlands International , Wageningen, The Netherlands
Tierney, N., Tierney, R. A., Bjornsson, T., Kolbeinsson, Y., Townsend, S. E., Petersen, A. 2020 . Status and distribution of the Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna in Iceland, with special reference to the core area in Borgarfjörður. 70Wildfowl : 127–147

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