Global Shorebird Counting Report: Part Three

A few more statistics from the first Global Shorebird Counting Program organised on the World Shorebirds Day.

In which country the biggest number of shorebirds were counted?

This is a little bit unfair comparison as migration was not equally under way everywhere on Earth. While southern stopover sites began to welcome wintering shorebirds by the beginning of September, the majority of migrants were still in the Northern Hemisphere. The chart bellow shows the countries where the highest number of shorebirds were counted.

It was one of most often asked questions after the World Shorebirds Day. This data analysis didn’t go into hardcore scientific levels, yet it gave us an impression about the efforts we all made on this global counting event during the World Shorebirds Day.

This chart shows the top 10 highest numbers on a species level.

The beautiful Western Sandpiper was one of the most numerous shorebird species in 2014. © Filippo Nucifora

Despite the relative moderate involvement of European birdwatchers in the counting, the Northern Lapwing did well in the top 10. Same can be said about New Zealand, yet the South Island Oystercatcher found a place among the most numerous shorebird species.

Only a single individual of White-fronted Plover, Asian Dowitcher, Malaysian Plover, Rufous-chested Dotterel, Burchell’s Courser and Black-winged Pratincole was counted. 13 individuals of one of our Globally Threatened shorebird species and the ‘Shorebird of the Year 2014’, the Spoon-billed Sandpiper were counted in China on the World Shorebirds Day.

Thanks for Filippo Nucifora for offering this brilliant photo for this blog posts. Also special thanks to those Facebook friends who offered shorebird photographs.