Critically Endangered
New Zealand Plover
Charadrius obscurus
New Zealand Plover is a shorebird in the family Charadriidae (order Charadriiformes) — Charadrius obscurus, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to New Zealand.
The shorebird
It is a large, bulky plover, with a total length of 26–28 cm (10–11 in).
Published measurements include mass about 160.
Range and habitat
New Zealand plover are usually found in two disjunct populations in New Zealand, usually on sandy beaches and sand spits or feeding in tidal estuaries. The northern population occurs on the North Island and the southern population occurs at the southern end of the South Island and on Stewart Island/Rakiura. The New Zealand dotterel (Anarhynchus obscurus, synonym: New Zealand Plover) is a shorebird found only in certain areas of New Zealand.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
New Zealand plovers feed on small sand hoppers and insects, however they will sometimes feed on small aquatic creatures like small fish and crabs.
In crisis
The southern subspecies is critically endangered and was nearing extinction with about 70 individuals remaining in 1992. Conservation measures increased this nearly 300 by 2010, but a further decline has occurred to an estimated 101 individuals in 2024. "New Zealand dotterel recovery plan, 2004–14. (Threatened Species Recovery Plan 58)" (PDF).
New Zealand Plover is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on New Zealand Plover, Wikidata item Q636452. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
