Red Knot is the 2015 ‘Shorebird Of The Year’

World Shorebirds Day is strongly committed to support conservation efforts on shorebirds on any level and the ‘Shorebird of the Year‘ initiative is one of the future sources of funding such efforts.

The rufa Red Knot has recently been designated as a threatened subspecies under the Endangered Species Act. Photo was taken on its Southampton Island nesting ground. © Brad Winn/Manomet

Public voting on choosing the 2015 ‘Shorebird of the Year’ was opened before last year’s World Shorebirds Day and closed a couple of days ago. As a result of 444 votes the 2015 ‘Shorebird of the Year’ is the Red Knot with 116 votes. This clearly reflects the great awareness of voters on the serious conservation issues of Red Knot and migrant shorebirds in general.

Red Knot is one of the shorebirds ranging in the entire Arctic from the Alaskan/Canadian tundras through the Eurasian ones. Twice a year, during migration, Red Knots make incredible journeys in all the major flyways from the Americas to the East Asian – Australasian Flyway. During their long-haul journeys they are facing numerous anthropogenic and natural challenges. Habitat loss, hunting on the wintering and stopover sites or climate change in their breeding territories seriously affect migratory shorebird populations, including the attractive Red Knot. It is a flagship species of many conservation and research projects aiming to stop plummeting of populations. With the increased focus on the conservation of Red Knots, most of the Arctic breeding and other migratory shorebirds could also benefit.

Red Knot in breeding plumage are even more spectacular in large homogenous flocks. © Brad Winn/Manomet

A forthcoming groundbreaking fundraising project of World Shorebirds Day will put Red Knot works from every major flyway in focus. On our website more interesting facts will be published about Red Knot in the following months.

Let’s celebrate Red Knot and those who make incredible efforts in saving them! We’d love to hear your Red Knot stories. Take some time to write it in the comment field.

Red Knot on the way to its wintering grounds on Gotland Island, Sweden. © Jörgen Lindquist

Special thanks to Brad Winn/Manomet and Jörgen Lindquist for the fascinating photos.

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