Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vertebrate > bird > Bird |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Breeding) [NT(br)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Actitis hypoleucos |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1758) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Stanbury et al., 2021 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Long term non-significant decline Eng BBS (25 yr -31%) 10 yr, 5yr and 1yr trends are positive. Eng WeBS trends (25 yr -34%, 10 yr -12%) |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Declining breeding population that is subject to disturbance issues on breeding grounds. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Naturalised river restoration, with undisturbed refugia. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Policy conflict (detail in comments) |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Structured - sufficient |
| Species Comments: | Requires change in river /flood management policy and reduction in disturbance. BBS trend can be variable. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Prevent disturbance of Common Sandpipers at known breeding sites through managing visitor pressure and other potentially disturbing activities during the nesting season.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Pressure mitigation
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: Unknown
High priority sites: Pennines, Peak District
Comments: Implementation scale not accurate. Amended
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Review of available data on population, productivity and survival and fill gaps in data from key areas.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: Unknown
High priority sites: Pennines, Peak District
Comments: Need to confirm High Priority sites for Common Sand; there may be limited population and productivity data - confirming distribution and relative abundance may be the key first step
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Examine whether population changes of Common Sandpipers are associated with factors on the breeding grounds, water quality, river flow/sporadic flood events.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Pennines, Peak District
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.