Spoon-billed sandpiper threatened

From BirdLife:

Unique wader faces extinction

03-01-2007

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus, a charismatic wader (shorebird) with a remarkable, unique spatulate bill, has declined by more than 80% over the last 30 years, and experts are in a race to find out why before the species dwindles to extinction.

“Today we believe there are fewer than 400 breeding pairs of Spoon-billed Sandpipers left, and we urgently need to find out why they are disappearing” said Mike Crosby of BirdLife International.

Spoon-billed Sandpipers breed during June–July in a small strip of coastal Arctic tundra in Chuchotka, NE Russia. They migrate thousands of kilometres to winter along coasts in South and South-East Asia. Currently, they are classified as Endangered.

Experts from ten Asian countries along the Spoon-billed Sandpiper’s flyways recently met in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, to figure out what needs to be done to save the species.

See also here.

Shorebirds in the Americas: here.

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