BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Grasshopper Warbler

GRASSHOPPER WARBLER Locustella naevia

Conservation listings

Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: red (>50% population decline)

Long-term trend

UK: rapid decline

Distribution maps

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

Status summary

Grasshopper Warbler was previously amber-listed because of a contraction in range during the period preceding the 1988-91 Atlas, reportedly due to habitat loss (Gibbons et al. 1993). CBC data suffer from small and severely dwindling sample sizes, but the available data indicate a rapid population decline between the mid 1960s and mid 1980s, when numbers became too small for annual monitoring (Marchant et al. 1990). On this basis, the species is now red-listed. The BBS shows fluctuations in abundance since 1994, but little net change. Given suitable habitat and conditions, the species has high reproductive potential, as demonstrated by analysis of the NRS data (Glue 1990).

Table of population changes for Grasshopper Warbler

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

BBS UK 9 1994-2003 58 -3 -32 38

No productivity information available for this species


	BTO Home \| JNCC Home BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, UK. © British Trust for Ornithology (Registered Charity Number 216652). Terms and Conditions \| Privacy Statement Email:
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