The second edition of the U. S. Shorebird Conservation plan provides separate
conservation assessments for the two known North American races of Whimbrel. The
Canadian form, Numenius phaeopus hudsonicus, is highly imperiled,
but the Alaskan N. p. rufiventris (Gibson
and Kessel 1997, Engelmoer and Roselaar
1998) is considered to be of only moderate concern (Brown
et al. 2001). The U.S. Plan prioritization, however, does not take into account
the rapid elimination of much of the intertidal mangrove habitat used extensively
by Whimbrels in Latin America during the non-breeding season (Mallory
1981; Skeel and Mallory 1996; P.
O’Hara, pers. comm.). Consideration of this potential threat to both races
raises the prioritization score of rufiventris to a 4 (high concern). There
may be as many as 40,000 Whimbrels in Alaska (Morrison
et al. 2001, Brown et al. 2001).
Published estimates of density in Alaska, however, are low (McCaffery
1996, Skeel and Mallory 1996),
and the largest Alaskan concentrations involve only a few thousand birds (Handel
and Dau 1988). Population trends, migration routes and non-breeding destinations
of Alaska-breeding Whimbrels remain to be determined.
