BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Great Crested Grebe

GREAT CRESTED GREBE
Podiceps cristatus

Conservation listings

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

Long-term trend

UK: probable increase

Distribution maps

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

Status summary

This species was believed to be on the verge of extinction in Britain around 1860, when only 42 pairs were known in England. A subsequent increase followed reductions in persecution, aided by statutory protection, and the creation of habitat in the form of gravel pits (Gibbons et al. 1993). Increase was tracked by special surveys to around 7000 adult birds in Britain by 1975 (Hughes et al. 1979). The BBS provides the first annual, national monitoring of this species and indicates substantial population decline since 1994. Winter numbers, monitored by WeBS, increased during the 1980s but are now stable (Pollitt et al. 2003).

Table of population changes for Great Crested Grebe

Source	Period (yrs)	Years	Plots (n)	Change (%)	Lower limit	Upper limit	Alert	Comment
BBS UK	9	1994-2003	56	-28	-47	-1	(>25)
BBS England	9	1994-2003	49	-33	-51	-7	(>25)

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