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Breeding Pied Avocets Continued to Decline in the Wadden Sea

Two adult pied avocets and a juvenile beside shallow water
Conservation · Population & status

Breeding pied avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) continued to decline across the Wadden Sea, according to a new trilateral monitoring report. The authors classified the overall trend as a moderate decrease both over the full 1991–2023 period and during the more recent 2012–2023 period.

The latest complete count found 6,700 breeding pairs

The report brings together monitoring from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Annual data were used to calculate long- and short-term trends, while coordinated total counts provided periodic estimates of breeding-pair numbers. The most recent complete count in the report found 6,700 pairs in 2018, down from 7,179 in 2012 and 12,389 in 2001.

Long-term declines were recorded in all four reporting regions: Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Hamburg, and the Netherlands. The report says declines have also persisted during the recent decade, except for a stabilisation in the Netherlands. At the Wadden Sea level, however, the latest twelve-year assessment remained negative.

Persistently low breeding success is the leading explanation

The authors identify persistently low breeding success across the Wadden Sea as a likely main driver of the decline. Pied avocets often nest along the mainland coast on silty mudflats, where mammalian predators can cause heavy losses. Larger groups also breed in coastal wetlands, and some sites are protected with electric fencing. Flooding and cold or stormy weather during chick rearing in May and June are listed as other possible causes of failure.

The report is an assessment of monitoring patterns rather than a test of what caused the decline. Its latest complete population count dates from 2018, although the trend series extends through 2023, and the detailed analysis of breeding-success data is still being prepared. Predation, flooding and adverse weather are therefore presented as possible causes associated with nest and chick losses, not as quantified contributions to the overall decline.

Sources and image credit

  1. Koffijberg, K., Baumung, S., Bregnballe, T., Enners, L., Frikke, J., Gnep, B., Hansen, M. B., Müller, G., & Packmor, F. (2026). Trends of breeding birds in the Wadden Sea 1991–2023 and results of the total count in 2018. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18326676Primary trilateral monitoring report, released 17 February 2026. It covers long-term trends for 1991–2023, short-term trends for 2012–2023 and the coordinated 2018 breeding-bird count.

Image: Ralf Hüsges — two adult pied avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) and a juvenile, photographed in Germany on 23 July 2026; representative breeding-family image, not birds from the monitoring report. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ · Source

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