BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Curlew

CURLEW
Numenius arquata

Conservation listings

Europe: SPEC category 2 (declining)
UK: amber (>20% of European breeding and winter populations)

Long-term trend

England: probable decline

Distribution maps

Maps and statistics from British and Irish
atlases can be viewed here.

Status summary

Curlews monitored by CBC were mostly in lowland habitats and may have been affected primarily by drainage of farmland (Gibbons et al. 1993). BBS data, more representative of the overall population, also show a decline, particularly in Scotland. WBS data, in contrast, indicate a moderate increase during the 1980s in Curlews nesting alongside waterways, followed by stability. Wintering Curlew abundance has shown a shallow long-term increase (Pollitt et al. 2003). In Northern Ireland, a rapid breeding decline occurred between the mid 1980s and 1999 (Henderson et al. 2002). Although samples are small, failure rate of nests at the egg stage have fallen.

Table of population changes for Curlew

Source	Period (yrs)	Years	Plots (n)	Change (%)	Lower limit	Upper limit	Alert	Comment
CBC/BBS England	35	1967-2002	72	-23	-60	33
	25	1977-2002	95	-39	-67	2
	10	1992-2002	214	-2	-15	9
	5	1997-2002	280	-10	-18	-2
WBS waterways	22	1980-2002	23	17	-24	80
	10	1992-2002	25	4	-17	32
	5	1997-2002	22	1	-13	15
BBS UK	9	1994-2003	429	-27	-33	-21	(>25)
BBS England	9	1994-2003	247	-19	-27	-11
BBS Scotland	9	1994-2003	120	-36	-45	-25	(>25)
BBS Wales	9	1994-2003	38	-31	-52	0

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 34 1968-2002 22 None Small sample

Daily failure rate (eggs) 34 1968-2002 25 Curvilinear 0.0291 nests/day 0.0266 nests/day -0.0025 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., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Beaven, L.P., Coombes, R.H., Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. and Thewlis, R.M. (2005) Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2004. BTO Research Report No. 385. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends) Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 18 January, 2006