2. Portrait Gallery

2.1.1 A logical order

Birds come in different shapes and sizes. Usually, it's easy to sort them into categories based on their similarities, something we all, and even the birds themselves, do. We can categorise them with varying precision. The 18'h cen• tury Swedish researcher Carl von Linne - better known by his Latin name Linnaeus - devoted his life to categoris• ing the animal and plant kingdoms. He did this with the help of many assistants, who he sent all over the world to collect plants and animals (sometimes the collections

and the golden plover, which in 1759 was called Chara• drius apricaria. Since then the golden plover has been put in a different genus and is now called Pluvialis apricaria. In previous centuries, species names were based solely on inspections of museum specimens. These specimens were relatively scarce and not very well preserved. In spite of this, Linneaus sorted the waterbirds very well and the species names he gave are still in use. 414 But, apart from the ringed plover and the Kentish plover (both in the genus Charadrius), all of his genus names have been changed. On closer examination, biologists assigned four species that Linneaus put in the genus Tringa, the grey plover, red knot, common sandpiper and turnstone, into four different genera, Pluvialis, Calidris, made it back to Sweden, but the assistants did not). In 17 59 Linnaeus published the Systema Naturae, in which he named most of the waterbirds covered in our book. Only three small waders were not scientifically described until later: the curlew sandpiper in 1763, the purple sandpiper in 1764, and the little stint in 1812, by the researchers Pontopiddan, Brtinnich and Leisler respectively. . The names given by Linneaus have two parts. First is the genus name (which starts with a capital letter, for ex• ample, Charadrius), then the species name (which starts with a lowercase letter, for example, hiaticula). Charadrius hiaticula is the scientific name used throughout the world for the ringed plover. Linnaeus grouped species that looked similar to him in one genus, for example, the ringed plover

27 PORTRAIT GALLERY

Common name Scientific name Biogeographic Population Estimated 1% population estimate trend criterion

Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis N & C Europe 275 000- Increase 3100 340 000 Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia leucorodia East Atlantic 9950 Increase 100 Brent Goose Branta hemic/a hemic/a W Siberia (br) 215 000 Decrease 2200 Brent Goose Branta bemica/ hrota Svalbard (br) 5000 Increase 50 Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis N Russia, E Baltic (br) 360000 Increase 3600 Common Shelduck Tadoma tadoma NW Europe (br) 300 000 Stable 3000 Eider Somateria m. mollissima Baltic & Wadden Sea 850 000- Decrease 10300 1 200 000 Mallard Anas p. platyrhynchos NW Europe (non-br) 4 500 000 Decrease 20000 Wigeon Anas penelope NW Europe (non-br) 1 500 000 Increase? 15 000 Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus graellsii W Europe to W Africa (non-br) 525 000 Increase 5300 Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus NEAtlantic 420 000- Stable 4700 510000 Herring Gull Larus argentatus argentatus Baltic/Nordic (br) 1 100 000- Stable 13 000 1 500 000 Common Gull Larus canus canus N & W Europe (br) 1 300 000- Decrease 17000 2 100 000 Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus N & C Europe (br) 5 600000- Increase 20000 7 300 000 Sandwich Tern Sterna s. sandvicensis W & N Europe (br) 159 000- Increase 1700 171000 Common Tern Sterna hirundo hirundo W & S Europe (br) 170 000- Stable 1900 200 000 Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea N Eurasia (br) >1 000 000 Little Tern Sterna albifrons albifrons W Europe (br) 31000- Stable 340 37000 Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus o. ostralegus Europe (br) 1020000 Increase 10 200 Pied Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta W Europe (br) 73 000 Stable 730 Great Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticu/a Europe, N Africa (non-br) 73 000 Increase 730 Great Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula W & S Africa (non-br) 190000 Decrease? 1900 Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus W Europe to W Mediterranean (br) 62 000- Decrease 660 70000 Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola E Atlantic (non-br) 247 000 Increase 2500 Eurasian Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria apricaria NW Europe (br) 69000 Decrease 650 Eurasian Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria altifrons Iceland, Faeroes (br) 930000 Stable 9300 Eurasian Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria altifrons N Norway, N Russia 645 000- Stable 8000 954 000 Red Knot Calidris canutus canutus Taimyr Peninsula (br) 340000 Decrease 3400 Red Knot Calidris canutus islandica NE Canadian islands (br) 450000 Decrease 4500 Sanderling Calidris alba E Atlantic (non-br) 123 000 Increase 1200 Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea SW Europe, W Africa (non-br) 740000 Increase 7400 Dunlin Calidris alpina alpina W Europe (non-br) 1330000 Stable 13 300 Dun lin C. alpina schinzii Iceland (br) 940000- Stable 9500 960000 Dun lin C. alpina schinzii Britain & Ireland (br) 23 000- Decrease 250 26000 Dunlin C. alpina schinzii Baltic (br) 3600-4 700 Decrease 40 Little Stint Calidris minuta Europe & W Africa (non-br) 200000 Decrease? 2000 Purple Sandpiper Calidris maritima E Atlantic (non-br) so 000- Stable 750 100000 Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica lapponica W Europe, NW Africa (non-br) 120 000 Stable 1200 Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica taymyrensis W & S Africa (non-br) 520000 Decrease 5200 Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa islandica Iceland, Faeroes, Shetland, Lofoten Is 35 000 Increase 350 Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata arquata Europe (br) 420000 Stable/Increase 4200