Numenius arquata is widely distributed, breeding across Europe from the British Isles, through north-western Europe and Scandinavia into Russia extending east into Siberia, east of Lake Baikal. It winters around the coasts of north-west Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, South-East Asia, Japan and the Sundas. It has a large global population estimated to number 765,000-1,065,000 individuals^28,29. The breeding population in Western Europe (220,000-360,000 pairs) has declined in recent years, with a 53% decline in the United Kingdom calculated over the period 1970-2005 from the Common Birds Census and the Breeding Bird Survey, and a 37% decline over the period 1994-2006 derived from the Breeding Bird Survey^33,34. A decline of 86% was calculated in Ireland between 1988-1991 and 2003^18,19and declines have been recorded in Finland², Germany²⁰, Lithuania (20-30% per decade)²¹ and the Netherlands (31% since 1984²²). Unquantified, but potentially highly significant, declines have also been recorded in the central Asian populations of N. a. orientalis²³. In Denmark²⁴ and eastern Siberia²⁵ breeding populations are apparently stable and apparent increases in wintering populations in the Wadden Sea²⁶, on the Adriatic coast²⁷, in East Asia²⁸ and in Western Europe suggest that breeding populations, probably in European Russia and northern Siberia have perhaps increased. Overall, analysis of the compiled trend data indicate three generation (15 year) estimate of decline of between 26% and 34%^{2,19,22,28,29,30,31,32,33,34}. Owing to the uncertainty over whether declines in southern populations have been compensated by increases in northern populations, the global trend is suspected to fall within the band 20-30% declines in the past 15 years or three generations.