BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Goosander

GOOSANDER
Mergus merganser

Conservation listings

Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: green

Long-term trend

UK: moderate increase

Distribution maps

Distribution maps for this species are not currently available online (see Atlases species help)

Status summary

Goosanders were first discovered to have colonised the UK in Perthshire in 1871, and spread from Scotland into northern England in the 1940s (Holloway 1996). Between the two breeding atlases, the species expanded its range in northern England, and colonised Wales and southwest England. WBS samples became large enough for annual monitoring in 1980, and have shown continued population increase until at least the mid 1990s. The BTO's two national surveys demonstrated an average increase in population size of 3% per annum between 1987 and 1997 (Rehfisch et al. 1999). Reasons for the colonisation and the subsequent range expansion and population increase within the UK are unknown.

Table of population changes for Goosander

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

WBS waterways 21 1981-2002 23 80 2 203

10 1992-2002 28 18 -9 57

5 1997-2002 25 3 -15 22

Productivity information is not currently 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