Campaign launched to help identify breeding Lapwing

March 27th, 2019

BirdWatch Ireland has called on members of the public to engage in a real-life Pokémon Go game by finding breeding Lapwing birds near their places of residence.

The conservation organisation’s new bird spotting challenge for the public is part of efforts to keep track of breeding Lapwings as their numbers are rapidly dwindling.

The survey, funded by the Department of Agriculture, is set to include all incidences of citizen observations of the bird from across the country.

The disappearance of breeding Lapwings or Green Plovers is not an isolated case with the declining number of Ireland’s iconic Curlews being well documented by BirdWatch Ireland.

According to a recent nationwide Bird Atlas study, there has been a 53 per cent decrease in Curlews’ breeding range in Ireland in the last 40 years.

Lapwings are also “red-listed” for immediate action on the Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland dossier with their endangered status raised in the Government’s Prioritised Action Framework 2014 to 2020.

Ricky Whelan, the coordinator for Project Lapwing, described keeping track of breeding Lapwing as a difficult feat since the species is often spotted in massive flocks during winter.

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