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BTO Blueline
SAND MARTIN
Riparia riparia
Sand Martin © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 3 (depleted)
UK: amber (European status)
Long-term trend
UK: fluctuating, with no long-term trend
UK population size
85,000–270,000 nests in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 66,300–211,000 pairs in 2000 (updated using WBS trend: BiE04)
Status summary
This species is conspicuously difficult to monitor, because active and inactive nest holes are difficult to distinguish, and because whole colonies frequently disperse or shift to new locations as suitable sand cliffs are created and destroyed. WBS counts, which are of apparently occupied nest holes, suggest a stable or shallowly increasing population, with wide fluctuations, although the ongoing decrease since the late 1990s has been steep enough to raise BTO alerts. BBS counts, which are of birds seen, show clearly that large year-to-year changes occur, but do not yet reveal a clear long-term trend. Nest record samples are small, but indicate that nest success has improved enormously since the 1960s, and that clutch size has also increased. Rainfall in the species' trans-Saharan wintering grounds prior to the birds' arrival has long been known to promote annual survival and thus abundance in the following breeding season (Szép 1995). More recently, it has been discovered that summer rainfall on the breeding grounds has a negative influence on survival rates through the following winter (Cowley & Siriwardena 2005).
 

Population changes
WBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Sand Martin

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
WBS waterways 27 1978-2005 19 -9 -40 71   Small sample
  25 1980-2005 19 -11 -43 68   Small sample
  10 1995-2005 23 -46 -61 -18 >25  
  5 2000-2005 18 -24 -36 1   Small sample
BBS UK 10 1995-2005 109 23 -34 135    
  5 2000-2005 115 34 2 98    
BBS England 10 1995-2005 72 20 -17 61    
  5 2000-2005 76 10 -12 45    

BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Table of productivity changes for Sand Martin

Variable Period
(yrs)		 Years Mean
annual
sample		 Trend Modelled
in first year		 Modelled
in 2005		 Change Comment
Clutch size 37 1968-2005 32 Curvilinear 4.68 eggs 4.98 eggs 6.4%  
Brood size 37 1968-2005 31 None        
Daily failure rate (eggs) 37 1968-2005 22 Linear decline 1.27% nests/day 0.01% nests/day -99.2% Small sample
Daily failure rate (chicks) 37 1968-2005 31 Linear decline 2.6% nests/day 0.04% nests/day -98.5%  
Laying date 37 1968-2005 31 None        

 
Clutch size graph
Brood size graph

Chick nest failure graph

Chick nest failure graph

Laying date graph

 

 

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species

 
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Barimore, C., Coombes, R.H.,
Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. & Thewlis, R.M. (2007)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2007.
BTO Research Report No. 487. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 3 January, 2008