Western Snowy Plover Monitoring in the San Francisco Bay Annual Report 2012

The Pacific Coast population of the Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus, Snowy Plover) breeds along or near tidal waters and is behaviorally distinct from the interior population (Funk 2007). Coastal-breeding Snowy Plovers have declined as a result of poor reproductive success, likely due to habitat loss, habitat alteration, human disturbance, and increasing predation pressure (Page et al. 1991, USFWS 2007). In response to this decline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Pacific Coast Western Snowy Plover population as federally threatened in 1993 (USFWS 1993).