BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Curlew

CURLEW
Numenius arquata

Conservation Listings

Table 4/Amber (>20% of European population)
Biodiversity Steering Group Conservation Concern List

Long term trend

UK: Uncertain, probable decline

Status Summary

The UK's breeding Curlew are not covered well by the CBC and the species' range has contracted away from the core area of CBC coverage, probably because of the drainage of farmland (Gibbons et al. 1993). Wintering Curlew abundance has shown a shallow, long-term increase (Musgrove et al. 2001), but the BBS shows a recent decline, particularly in England and Scotland. In Northern Ireland, breeding declines greater than 50% occurred between the mid-1980s and 1999 (Henderson et al. in press), but numbers recorded by the BBS increased substantially in 2000. Although samples are small, failure rate of nests at the egg stage have improved: over the 34-day egg stage (28 days incubation + 6 days laying) nest failures have fallen from 64% to 55%.

Table of population changes for Curlew

Source Period
(yrs) Years Plots
(n) Change
(%) Lower
limit Upper
limit Alert Comment

CBC all habitats 31 1968-1999 23 -30 -65 7 Unrepresentative?

25 1974-1999 24 -38 -71 -1 >25 Unrepresentative?

10 1989-1999 23 -4 -27 21 Unrepresentative?

5 1994-1999 25 1 -12 12 Unrepresentative?

WBS waterways 24 1975-1999 20 63 4 364 Small sample

10 1989-1999 26 8 -13 47

5 1994-1999 27 9 -6 32

BBS UK 6 1994-2000 431 -13 -19 -6

BBS England 6 1994-2000 244 -17 -25 -8

BBS Scotland 6 1994-2000 125 -19 -31 -4

BBS Wales 6 1994-2000 37 -3 -32 38 Small sample

BBS N.Ireland 6 1994-2000 21 226 67 536 Small sample

The Breeding Bird Survey is jointly funded by BTO, JNCC and RSPB

Table of productivity information for Curlew

Variable Period
(yrs) Years Mean
annual
sample Trend Predicted
in first year Predicted
in last year Change Comment

Clutch size 31 1968-1999 24 None Small sample

Daily failure rate (eggs) 31 1968-1999 27 Curvilinear 0.0296 nests/day 0.0231 nests/day -0.0065 nests/day Small sample

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species

Insufficient data on nestling failure
available for this species

Insufficient data on laying date
available for this species

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species

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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Crick, H.Q.P., Balmer, D.E., Beaven, L.P., Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Leech, D.I., Marchant, J.H.,
Noble, D.G., Raven, M.J., Simpkin, A.P., Thewlis, R.M. and Wernham, C.V. (2002) Breeding Birds in the Wider
Countryside: their conservation status 2001. BTO Research Report No. 278. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

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