Black Turnstone
(Arenaria melanocephala)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

Black Turnstones are a year-round coastal species, nesting mostly in a narrow band of sedge tundra in western Alaska and overwintering along the rocky shorelines of the Pacific coast from Alaska to California. In Canada, this species is common throughout the winter along the coast of British Columbia. There appears to have been little change in the number of birds using Canadian shorelines relative to about 1970. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Degradation of both nesting and overwintering habitat from petroleum contaminants and human disturbance are the most significant potential threats for Black Turnstones (Handel and Gill 2001). In Canada, British Columbia has high jurisdictional responsibility for several rocky intertidal shorebird species with large proportions of their wintering range in the province, including the Black Turnstone (Gratto-Trevor et al. 2011).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Gratto-Trevor, C., R.I.G. Morrison, B. Collins, J. Rausch, J., M. Drever, and V. Johnston. 2011. Trends in Canadian shorebirds. Canadian Biodiversity: Ecosystem Status and Trends 2010, Technical Thematic Report No. 13. Canadian Councils of Resource Ministers. Ottawa, ON. iv + 32 pp. Gratto-Trevor, C., R.I.G. Morrison, B. Collins, J. Rausch, J., M. Drever, and V. Johnston. 2011. Trends in Canadian shorebirds. Canadian Biodiversity: Ecosystem Status and Trends 2010, Technical Thematic Report No. 13. Canadian Councils of Resource Ministers. Ottawa, ON. iv + 32 pp. (Link)
• Handel, C.M., and R.E. Gill. 2001. Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Handel, C.M., and R.E. Gill. 2001. Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)