BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Redstart

REDSTART
Phoenicurus phoenicurus

Conservation listings

Europe: SPEC category 2 (depleted)
UK: amber (European status)

Long-term trend

UK, England: fluctuating, with no long-term trend

Distribution maps

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

Status summary

The decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s was thought to be due to severe drought conditions in the Sahel wintering area in Africa (Marchant et al. 1990). There was a loss of range of 20% in Britain between 1968-72 and 1988-91, in terms of the numbers of occupied 10-km squares (Gibbons et al. 1993). A recovery in population size began in the mid 1970s and appears to have continued, at least in England, into the late 1990s. This increase has been associated with improving breeding performance and progressively earlier laying dates. The trend towards earlier laying can be partially explained as a result of recent climate change (Crick & Sparks 1999).

Table of population changes for Redstart

Source	Period (yrs)	Years	Plots (n)	Change (%)	Lower limit	Upper limit	Alert	Comment
CBC/BBS UK	35	1967-2002	53	-18	-44	19
	25	1977-2002	65	109	50	175
	10	1992-2002	129	6	-8	22
	5	1997-2002	166	-9	-17	2
CBC/BBS England	35	1967-2002	34	-9	-38	53
	25	1977-2002	41	128	32	227
	10	1992-2002	75	17	-3	34
	5	1997-2002	94	-4	-17	9
BBS UK	9	1994-2003	131	11	-8	33
BBS England	9	1994-2003	69	49	15	92
BBS Wales	9	1994-2003	51	-17	-36	7

Table of productivity information for Redstart

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

Clutch size 34 1968-2002 50 Curvilinear 5.86 eggs 6.19 eggs 0.33 eggs

Brood size 34 1968-2002 88 Curvilinear 5.07 chicks 5.47 chicks 0.4 chicks

Daily failure rate (eggs) 34 1968-2002 75 Linear decline 0.0116 nests/day 0.0036 nests/day -0.008 nests/day

Daily failure rate (chicks) 34 1968-2002 53 Linear decline 0.011 nests/day 0.0055 nests/day -0.0055 nests/day

Laying date 34 1968-2002 63 Curvilinear day 140 day 131 -9 days

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