Spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea), India.
Image: Tisha Mukherjee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
At a glance
- IUCN category
- CR · Critically Endangered
- Animal group
- Birds
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- FaunaHub record reviewed
- Checked against IUCN
- Matches source — IUCN's 2021 global assessment of Calidris pygmaea says Critically EndangeredChecked 2026-10-09 against IUCN's Red List export published 2026-07-28 · assessment
Conservation overview
The spoon-billed sandpiper is a small migratory shorebird with a unique spatula-shaped bill. It is assessed as Critically Endangered.
Its long migration depends on a chain of coastal wetlands that are rapidly being lost.
Range & habitat
Breeds in north-eastern Russia and migrates along the East Asian coast to wintering sites in South and Southeast Asia.
Major threats
Threats below are drawn from the authoritative sources listed on this page. For the current, complete assessment, see the IUCN Red List.
- Loss of coastal stopover wetlands
- Trapping on the wintering grounds
- A tiny population
Why it matters
This tiny, distinctive shorebird is a flagship for protecting the threatened intertidal wetlands of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, on which countless migratory birds depend.
Gallery
Spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea).
Image: Tisha Mukherjee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources
Sources for Spoon-billed Sandpiper
- IUCN Red List — look up Spoon-billed Sandpiper (authoritative status)
- BirdLife International