Abstract
Jamnagar, a coastal district of Gujarat, is probably the only site in Asia where thousands of Crab-plover Dromas ardeola winter every year. From 2000 to 2019, we carried out winter surveys in the district to assess their distribution and abundance. Additionally, we accessed recent records of Crab-plover for Gujarat from literature and the eBird database. The 175 sightings of the species obtained during our surveys and records in other sources from 1985 and 2019 serve as the data for this paper. During the surveys, we sighted flocks/groups of Crab-plover in Jamnagar from October to April; the highest counts were recorded from November to January. The highest number recorded during the surveys was c. 2,000 individuals in 2015 at Narara Island. The highest estimate from other data sources was c. 5,000 birds in 1984 for the entire southern coast of Gulf of Kachchh by the Oxford University Expedition. Narara Island and Balachadi Beach of Marine National Park are the main wintering grounds of the species, with a total of 60 and 58 sightings on eBird. The closure of the ship-breaking yard at Sachana in Jamnagar district in 2011 saw an increase in the population of Crab-plover and other waders.References
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