| Species | Redshank - Tringa erythropus, bird |
| Habitat | COASTAL FLOODAND GRAZING MARSH |
| Background and status | The redshank is species
of European conservation concern for both its breeding and wintering populations.
Its unfavourable conservation status is due to moderate declines in many
countries in Europe, where the global population is concentrated. Iceland,
Norway, Belarus, the UK and Netherlands hold three quarters of the European
breeding population. European Russia and Turkey may hold important numbers
but numbers are poorly known. The majority of birds winter in the UK, Ireland,
the Netherlands and Portugual. The remainder wintering mainly in northern
and western Africa.
The UK holds around 18% of the north-west European breeding population and internationally important numbers winter (over 50% of the Eastern Atlantic Flyway population). Since 1940 the redshank has disappeared from many inland localities in the UK, although it is still found in good numbers on saltmarshes, grazing marsh and in-bye land in the northern and Western Isles and northern grasslands. In the South West breeding areas include the Somerset Levels and Moors and Poole Harbour. |
| Main Threats | Where they breed the
main threats are loss of suitable nest sites through fragmentation of habitat,
over grazing and loss of local grazing land, loss of feeding areas for chicks
as a result of agricultural drainage or prolonged droughts, predation and
the knock-on effects of severe winter weather resulting in the starvation
of large numbers of mainly first-winter birds.
Where they winter the main threats are loss of intertidal feeding grounds through sea level rise and development, disturbance of roost sites and on feeding grounds, water quality, predation and the effects of severe winter weather. |
| Conservation and targets |
|