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SPOTTED FLYCATCHER
Muscicapa striata
Spotted Flycatcher © G H Higgenbotham
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 3, declining
UK: red (>50% population decline)
UK Biodiversity Action Plan: click here
Long-term trend
UK, England: rapid decline
UK population size
63,700 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
Spotted Flycatchers have declined rapidly and consistently since the 1960s and the CBC/BBS decline is also reflected in the trend revealed by CES. Productivity measures indicate greater nest losses at the chick stage, and a decrease overall in the ratio of juveniles to adults. Demographic modelling shows that decreases in the annual survival rates of birds in their first year of life are most likely to have driven the decline (Freeman & Crick 2003). Decreasing survival rates may have been caused by deteriorations in woodland habitats, particularly leading to declines in large flying insects, or by conditions either on the wintering grounds or along migration routes (Fuller et al. 2005). Since trends have been similar across UK regions and habitats, however, it is more likely that the decline has been driven by factors operating outside the UK. A predator 'control' experiment has suggested that the abundance of the introduced grey squirrel and other nest predators may be determining the breeding success of Spotted Flycatchers, especially in woodland, where nest success was lower overall than in gardens (Stoate & Szczur 2006).
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS UK graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
CBC/BBS England graph
CES adult abundance graph
CES juvenile abundance graph
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
 
Clutch size graph
Brood size graph
Egg nest failure graph
Chick nest failure graph
Laying date graph
CES productivity graph
 

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 7 November, 2008