Regenpfeiffer Vorarlberg

Plovers are compact waders with short bills, large eyes and short to medium length legs. They live in open habitats near water. Typical settings in the DACH region include the Wadden Sea along the North and Baltic coasts, salt marshes and brackish lagoons, wet inland meadows and fens, and bare gravel or sand surfaces along rivers and in extraction sites. The northern lapwing prefers open wet meadows and fields, the little ringed plover today breeds almost exclusively on man-made bare ground such as gravel pits and dredged areas, the common ringed plover is a coastal breeder, and the European golden plover survives only as a tiny relict breeding population in north-west German raised bogs while still passing through and wintering in very large flocks.

Population trends are uniformly negative. Germany's national Red List of breeding birds places the European golden plover and the common ringed plover in the highest threat category 1, threatened with extinction, and the northern lapwing in category 2, strongly endangered. The main drivers are the drainage and intensification of wet grassland, habitat loss along the coasts through tourism and recreation, succession and construction on gravel and bare ground sites, frequent early mowing during the nesting period, and high losses from predation in cleared landscapes. All species in the family are covered by strict protection under the EU Birds Directive and Germany's Federal Nature Conservation Act.

For hunters, plovers are not quarry but valuable indicator species for intact wetlands, meadow nesting habitat and near-natural river plains on the ground. Reliable identification in the field is based on the typical short-run-and-pause gait, the contrasting breast bands of many species, the short bills and the distinctive calls. Where plovers occur, hunters can support the populations by considering meadow mowing dates, by keeping disturbance away from breeding sites, by maintaining open bare-ground areas, and by working closely with the local nature conservation authority. Any deliberate killing, disturbance or destruction of nests is a criminal offence.