| Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANIMALIA | CHORDATA | AVES | CHARADRIIFORMES | RECURVIROSTRIDAE |
| Scientific Name: | Himantopus himantopus | ||||||
| Species Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1758) | ||||||
Common Name/s:
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| Red List Category & Criteria: | Least Concern ver 3.1 | ||||||
| Year Assessed: | 2009 | ||||||
| Assessor/s: | BirdLife International | ||||||
| Reviewer/s: | Bird, J., Butchart, S. | ||||||
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Justification: This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be increasing, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. |
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| History: |
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| Countries: |
Native:
Afghanistan; Albania; Algeria; Angola; Armenia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Belarus; Belgium; Benin; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Botswana; Brunei Darussalam; Bulgaria; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cambodia; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Central African Republic; Chad; China; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Côte d'Ivoire; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Djibouti; Egypt; Eritrea; Ethiopia; France; Gabon; Gambia; Georgia; Germany; Ghana; Greece; Guam; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Hong Kong; Hungary; India; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Israel; Italy; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Korea, Republic of; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Lebanon; Lesotho; Liberia; Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Madagascar; Malawi; Malaysia; Mali; Malta; Mauritania; Moldova; Mongolia; Montenegro; Morocco; Mozambique; Myanmar; Namibia; Nepal; Netherlands; Niger; Nigeria; Northern Mariana Islands; Oman; Pakistan; Palau; Palestinian Territory, Occupied; Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Qatar; Romania; Russian Federation; Russian Federation; Russian Federation; Rwanda; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Serbia; Sierra Leone; Singapore; Slovakia; Slovenia; Somalia; South Africa; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Swaziland; Switzerland; Syrian Arab Republic; Taiwan, Province of China; Tajikistan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Togo; Tunisia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Uganda; Ukraine; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; Uzbekistan; Viet Nam; Western Sahara; Yemen; Zambia; Zimbabwe
Vagrant:
Congo; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; Gibraltar; Iceland; Ireland; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Luxembourg; Maldives; Norway; Seychelles; Sweden; United States
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| Range Map: | Click here to open the map viewer and explore range. |
| Habitat and Ecology: | Behaviour Northern populations of this species make long-distance migratory movements, travelling southwards to their wintering grounds between August and November and returning to their breeding areas between March and April2. In more temperate regions the species is sedentary or only locally dispersive however1. The species breeds solitarily or in loose colonies of 2-50 or occasionally up to several hundred pairs1, 4. It is typically a gregarious species, occurring in small groups6 (up to 15 individuals)1, 4 or larger flocks of several hundred up to a thousand individuals on migration, during the winter4, 6 and at nightly roosts4. Habitat Breeding The species typically breeds in shallow freshwater and brackish wetlands with sand, mud or clay substrates and open margins, islets or spits near water level6. Suitable habitats include marshes and swamps, shallow lake edges, riverbeds, flooded fields1, irrigated areas6, sewage ponds1 and fish-ponds6. The species may also breed around alkaline and high-altitude (montane) lakes1 or in more saline environments such as river deltas, estuaries6, coastal lagoons3, 6 and shallow coastal pools with extensive areas of mudflats, salt meadows3, saltpans, coastal marshes1 and swamps6. Non-breeding Outside of the breeding season the species occupies the shores of large inland waterbodies and estuarine or coastal habitats1 such as river deltas6, coastal lagoons3, 6 and shallow freshwater or brackish pools with extensive areas of mudflats, salt meadows3, saltpans, coastal marshes1 and swamps6. Diet Its diet is strongly seasonal1 but generally includes adult and larval aquatic insects (e.g. Coleoptera, Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, Hemiptera, Odonata, Diptera, Neuroptera and Lepidoptera), molluscs, crustaceans, spiders, oligochaete and polychaete worms, tadpoles1 and amphibian spawn4, small fish, fish eggs1 and occasionally seeds4. Breeding site The nest is a depression5 or shallow scrape positioned on hard ground near water on a hummock5 or amongst grass and sedge1. Alternatively the nest may be a more elaborate platform of vegetation6 constructed on a floating mass of aquatic vegetation1. The species nests singly or in loose colonies1, showing a preference for open areas close to foraging sites with good all-round (360 degree) visibility3. |
| Systems: | Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine |
| Major Threat(s): | The species is susceptible to avian influenza7 and avian botulism8, 9 so may be threatened by future outbreaks of these diseases. |
| Citation: | BirdLife International 2009. Himantopus himantopus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 07 February 2012. |
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