Both the breeding and winter ranges of the Baird's Sandpiper are outside areas that are regularly surveyed. Migration monitoring surveys do capture the species during fall migration, but may over-represent juvenile birds because sightings of Baird's Sandpipers in coastal areas, where a majority of migration monitoring takes place, are typically juveniles (Jehl 1979). Adult Baird's Sandpipers migrate primarily through central North America, where fewer migration monitoring surveys are conducted. Nevertheless, results from these surveys suggest a moderate increase in abundance in the continental population relative to about 1970. Though now somewhat dated, surveys from the breeding grounds in Canada (at the Rasmussen Lowlands and Sarcpa Lake, Nunavut) found no changes in abundance of Baird's Sandpipers between the 1970s-80s and 1990s (Gratto-Trevor et al. 1998, Moskoff and Montgomerie 2002). The Baird's Sandpiper is perhaps best assessed as having experienced a moderate increase in abundance since the early 1970s. However, considering the imprecision of the migration monitoring results and poor survey coverage, the reliability of this assessment is considered low. Future assessments of status will be improved when results from the Arctic Program for Regional and International Shorebird Monitoring (Arctic PRISM) become available. The Baird's Sandpiper is currently is at an acceptable level relative to its national population goal (see graph below).
Additional information on: Analyses of Shorebird Migration Monitoring Data
