BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Lesser Redpoll

LESSER REDPOLL
Carduelis cabaret

Lesser Redpoll © Tommy Holden

Conservation listings

Europe (C. cabaret/flammea): no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: amber (>50% population decline but data possibly unrepresentative, >20% of European breeding population)

Long-term trend

England: rapid decline

Distribution maps

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

Status summary

Lesser Redpolls were once abundant and widespread on CBC and CES plots in lowland Britain, but are largely absent there now as breeding birds. The 1988-91 Atlas showed a range contraction of 11% since 1968-72, including complete loss in much of eastern Grampian (Gibbons et al. 1993). Despite local extinctions taking place in Scotland as well as England, it is possible that Lesser Redpolls may have withdrawn in recent decades from the lowlands to northern and western UK regions, where monitoring prior to 1994 was less effective, and therefore that CBC may have overestimated its decline. The species has been moved from the green to the amber list, although the apparent extent of its decline clearly warrants red-listing. It is unclear from BBS results whether there has been UK decline since 1994, although there have been further steep falls in England. CES data indicates a rapid long-term decline in productivity, and there is evidence that survival rates also fell during the population decline (Siriwardena et al. 1998a). C. cabaret is now widely treated as a separate species from Common Redpoll C. flammea, but does not have a separate European conservation listing; it has a small range that lies wholly within western Europe, and prior to its decline a substantial proportion of its total population bred in the UK.

Table of population changes for Lesser Redpoll

Source	Period (yrs)	Years	Plots (n)	Change (%)	Lower limit	Upper limit	Alert	Comment
CBC/BBS England	35	1967-2002	41	-90	-97	-78	>50
	25	1977-2002	40	-97	-99	-94	>50
	10	1992-2002	42	-71	-90	-54	>50
	5	1997-2002	51	-32	-52	10
CES adults	18	1984-2002	19	-74	.	.	*[>50]**	Small sample
	10	1992-2002	17	-51	.	.	[>50]	Small sample
	5	1997-2002	14	-12	.	.		Small sample
CES juveniles	18	1984-2002	10	.	.	.	[>50]	Small sample
BBS UK	9	1994-2003	120	11	-10	37
BBS England	9	1994-2003	47	-51	-67	-26	(>50)
BBS Scotland	9	1994-2003	36	17	-21	72

Table of productivity information for Lesser Redpoll

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

Daily failure rate (eggs) 34 1968-2002 11 None Small sample

Laying date 34 1968-2002 12 Curvilinear day 147 day 147 0 days Small sample

Percentage juveniles (CES) 18 1984-2002 20 Smoothed trend 283 productivity index 102 productivity index -65%[>50]

Percentage juveniles (CES) 10 1992-2002 18 Smoothed trend 123 productivity index 102 productivity index -19% Small sample

Percentage juveniles (CES) 5 1997-2002 15 Smoothed trend 111 productivity index 102 productivity index -10% Small sample

Insufficient data on clutch size
available for this species

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species

Egg nest failure graph

Insufficient data on nestling failure
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