Redshank
Tringa totanus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Totanus calidris L.: Elwes, Buckley, 1870: 332; Reiser, 1894: 135; Jordans, 1940: 146; Klain, 1909: 135; Yurkevich, 1904: 312.
Order Chardriiformes
Family Scolopacidae
Conservation status: in Bulgaria: Critically endangered CR C[2(a(i)+b)]; EN=B [1(b(ii+iii+v)+c(iii+iv))], BDA-II, III; International: BeC-III, BoC-II, ECS-Spec 2, BD-II.
General distribution. A Palearctic species with a vast breeding area and isolated habitats in Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. In the east it reaches Japan. It winters along the Atlantic coast of Europe, in the west to Iceland, in Southern Europe, along the shores of Africa, the Arab peninsula, Hindustan, Indochina, China and Indonesia.
Distribution and abundance in Bulgaria. A breeding summer visitor, passage migrant and winter visitor. At the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, it was a comparatively numerous breeding species in the marshes throughout the country [1, 2]. After drying up most of the marshes during the 1950s, the breeding population declined drastically and the species now has a punctate distribution in the surviving marshy places along the shores and within the country. The decline in the major breeding places along the Black Sea coast continued in the following decades. At present the population is estimated at 15-35 pairs [3]. The last certain breeding of the species is from Uzun Geren: 1 breeding pair in 2005 (M. Dimitrov, unpublished data). During migrations it visits wetlands in the whole country, mainly along the Black Sea coast (during the autumn migration in Atanasovsko Ezero Lake, a concentration of a maximum of 6 574 individuals was reported [4]). In more recent times, for the region of the Burgas lakes a maximum of 3 248 individuals was registered, in 1999 [5]. The number of birds wintering in Bulgaria has been declining since 1975. In the past, a maximum of 924 were reported during the mid-winter counts [6], mainly in Atanasovsko Ezero Lake. For the 1985-2002 period, the number of individuals wintering in Bulgaria reached a maximum of 68 in 2001 [7].
Habitats. Shore brackish, salty and freshwater lagoons, sea bays, sand bars and shallow waters, marshes, bogs, wet meadows and seasonably floodable agricultural lands, tailings-ponds, fish farms, irrigation areas and canals, river banks.
Biology. It breeds in hollows amongst tufts of herbaceous vegetation, singularly or in the vicinity and in the colonies of other waders. It mainly feeds on small water invertebrates (Hydrobia, Corophium, etc.), insects and ground worms.
Similar species. The Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus); the Ruff (Philomachus pugnax).
Negative factors. Loss and degradation of the habitats, uncoordinated repair activities of the dikes in the lakes Atanasovsko and Pomoriysko; ground predators, lethality due to diseases, illegal shooting.
Conservation measures taken. Protected according to the Biological Diversity Act. The major breeding habitats are declared Protected Territories and Ramsar Sites. Monitoring is carried out.
Conservation measures needed. Preservation of the existing habitats; restoration of the wetlands in which it bred in the past; restriction of the access of ground predators to the nests.
References. 1. Nankinov, 1985; 2. Nankinov et al, 1997; 3. Iankov, in press: 4. Roberts, 1980; 5. Dimitrov et al., 2005; 6. Johnson, Biber, 1971; 7. Michev, Profirov, 2003.
Authors: Milko Dimitrov, Svetla Dalakchieva
