Rolf Nagel

The species breeds in moist-wet tundra habitats interspersed with surface water, wet coastal grassland, salt-marshes and wet upland moorland. Outside breeding season it occurs on variety of inland and coastal wetland types (Warnock & Gill 2020). Widely distributed across the N Holarctic. In Europe it breeds mostly in Fennoscandia, the Baltic region, the British Isles and Iceland (Keller et al. 2020).

Intra Eurasian/African migrant. European populations winter in W & S Europe, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, N & W Africa.

Its population trend in Europe is unknown. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2022).

Season of assessment

W

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		865000-1050000,937000
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 Dunlin

General movement pattern follows NE-SW direction for the populations breeding in N Europe and NW-SE/ N-S directions for the NW European breeders.

Birds breeding in Svalbard are encountered during migration and winter mostly along the coasts of Scandinavia and W Europe, S to W Africa. Breeding populations from Scandinavia, N European Russia and NW Siberia migrate mostly SW, being encountered mainly in NW & W Europe, and the Baltic region, they winter as far as NW & W Africa. Birds marked in N Europe are also encountered wintering in C & E Mediterranean, and the Black Sea region. Baltic region populations (ssp. schinzii) fly mainly SW, to SW Europe and NW Africa.

Birds from Greenland and Iceland take SE routes mainly to the British Isles, W & SW Europe, some reaching NW & W Africa.

Recoveries by Condition for Dunlin

Most encounters are obtained after the mid-1970s. They come mainly from Jul-Sep – 52% combined (late breeding season and early autumn migration). Most encounters from late Aug to mid-Oct are based primarily on juvenile birds. Majority of encounters (ca. 93%) are recorded in NW, N, C and W Europe (36, 24, 23 and 10% respectively). The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over the years: from 74% pre-1960 to 5% after 1991; those based on alive birds considerably increased from 18% before 1960 to 95% after 1991. The latter is mostly due to ringing recoveries and colour mark records. Shooting as а factor has been largely reduced from 56% pre-1960 to less than 1% after 1991.

Most of the distant (>=50 km) recoveries are less than 2000km away (but some are more than 5000km).

Annual Movements for Dunlin

Post-breeding movements start late Jun-Jul, adults preceding juveniles about a month (Delany et al. 2009, Noskov et al. 2016). Autumn migration is evident mostly Aug-Nov, depending on latitude and region. N & NW African coasts are reached as early as Aug, the birds stay in their wintering grounds (S to W Africa) mainly until Mar-Apr, sometimes until mid-May. Major wintering regions in Africa are some coastal habitats in Tunisia, Morocco and from Mauritania to Guinea. 

Breeding sites are usually occupied in Apr-May, those in high Arctic – in Jun.

Tracked birds from the Baltic breeding population used staging sites at Wadden Sea and locally in W Europe to and from their wintering sites in Mauritania, showing rapid jump migration in the autumn and slower skipping type spring migration (Pakanen et al. 2018).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Dunlin

General migration patterns are also supported by genetic evidence – Greenland, Iceland & N European populations are predominant in the W African wintering grounds, while those wintering in W Europe originate from more eastern breeding grounds (e.g. N Russia) (Lopes et al. 2008).

Wadden Sea, Wash (UK), the Baltic Sea and Azov-Black Seas are important moulting grounds for the species (Delany et al. 2009). SW Europe, as well as N & NW Africa serve as stopover and wintering regions for migration routes of broad geographic range (Lopes et al. 2005, Thorup et al. 2009).

Possible loop migration in Europe has been suggested (Bairlein et al. 2014).

Black Sea region spring encounters suggest overland routes across E Europe to the W Siberia, which breeders undertake the longest routes within the region. W Siberian birds are encountered wintering in the Caspian Sea region from late autumn to late spring (Ilichev 1985).

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
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
2009 . An Atlas of Wader Populations in Africa and Western Eurasia. Wetlands International, Wageningen, The NetherlandsEditor(s): Delany, S., Scott, D., Dodman, T. & Stroud, D.
1985 . Migrations of birds of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Gruiformes – Charadriiformes. (in Russian). Nauka, MoscowEditor(s): Ilichev, V.
Bairlein, F., Dierschke, J., Dierschke, V., Salewski, V., Geiter, O., Hüppop, K., Köppen, U., Fiedler, W. 2014 . Atlas des Vogelzugs: Ringfunde Deutscher Brut- und Gastvögel. AULA-Verlag, Wiebelsheim
BirdLife International 2022 . Species factsheet: Calidris alpina. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 16/01/2022
Lopes, R. J., Hortas, F., & Wennerberg, L. 2008 . Geographical Segregation in Dunlin Calidris alpina Populations Wintering along the East Atlantic Migratory Flyway: Evidence from Mitochondrial DNA Analysis. Diversity and Distributions 14: 732–741
Lopes, R.J., Marques, J.C., & Wennerberg, L. 2005 . Migratory connectivity and temporal segregation of dunlin (Calidris alpina) in Portugal: evidence from morphology, ringing recoveries and mtDNA. Journal of Ornithology 147: 385–394
Noskov, G. A., Rymkevich, T. A., Gaginskaya, A. R. 2016 . Migration of Birds on Northwest Russia. Non-Passerines. ANO LA “Professional”, Saint Petersburg
Pakanen, V.-M., Jaakkonen, T., Saarinen, J., Rönkä, N., Thomson, R.L. and Koivula, K. 2018 . Migration strategies of the Baltic dunlin: rapid jump migration in the autumn but slower skipping type spring migration. J Avian Biol 49 article no.: jav-01513
Thorup O., Timonen S., Blomqvist D., Flodin L-Å., Jönsson P.E., Larsson M., Pakanen V-M. & Soikkeli M. 2009 . Migration and wintering of Baltic Dunlins Calidris alpina schinzii with known breeding origin. Ardea 97: 43–50
Warnock, N. D. and R. E. Gill 2020 . Dunlin (Calidris alpina), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.dunlin.01) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA

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