Family: Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)

Authority: (Forster, 1772)

Red List Category

Criteria: D

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Justification of Red List category
This species has not been recorded with certainty since 1963 (and none have been confirmed on the wintering grounds since 1939). It was formerly abundant, but declined rapidly over a century ago as a result of hunting and habitat loss and is now considered likely to be extinct (Elphick et al. 2010, Roberts and Jarić 2016). However, some uncertainty of the species's extinction status remains (Roberts and Jarić 2016, D. Roberts in litt. 2016). A set of papers published in 2017 (Akcakaya et al. 2017, Keith et al. 2017, Thompson et al. 2017) laid out methods for quantitatively estimating a species’s probability of extinction based on parameters associated with threats, in addition to records and surveys. Based on the application of these methods (Butchart et al. 2018), this species would qualify for reclassification as Critically Endangered. However, the authors recommended retaining it as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) because the many claimed records since the last confirmed one (1963) all have a very low probability of being valid.

Population size: 0-49 mature individuals

Population trend: unknown

Country endemic: no

Attributes
Land-mass type - continent
Realm - Nearctic
Realm - Neotropical
IUCN System - Terrestrial