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BTO Blueline
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BTO Blueline
SISKIN
Carduelis spinus
 Siskin © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: green
Long-term trend
UK: increase
UK population size
369,000 pairs in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
The maturing of new conifer plantations has aided the spread of breeding Siskins throughout the UK, from their previous stronghold in the Scottish Highlands, since about 1950. A habit of using garden feeders, especially in late winter, has developed since the 1960s and, despite many of the birds involved migrating to the Baltic region to breed, may also have helped promote the UK breeding population. The 1988–91 Breeding Atlas identified a considerable expansion of the breeding range into southern Britain (Gibbons et al. 1993). More CBC plots became occupied during the 1970s and 1980s, but annual monitoring was not possible before the inception of BBS. Results since 1994 show extraordinary fluctuations, in both England and Scotland, which have largely been in parallel. To some extent, this may reflect occasional continental influxes affecting numbers on a broad UK scale.
 

Population changes
BBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Siskin

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
BBS UK 10 1995-2005 115 -28 -43 -11 >25  
  5 2000-2005 114 -21 -35 -8    
BBS England 10 1995-2005 34 -29 -59 23    
  5 2000-2005 34 -19 -48 18    
BBS Scotland 10 1995-2005 54 -31 -49 -12 >25  
  5 2000-2005 49 -25 -43 -5    

BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS England graph
BBS Scotland graph
 

Productivity trends
Productivity information is not currently 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