BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Treecreeper

TREECREEPER
Certhia familiaris

Conservation listings

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

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 UK Treecreeper population peaked in the mid 1970s, but has been roughly stable since about 1980. CES catches have increased over this period, however. Intensive study has shown that Treecreeper numbers and survival rates are reduced by wet winters (Peach et al. 1995b). Productivity, calculated using CES data, shows a long-term shallow increase. An apparent decrease in clutch size has been countered by a significant fall in nest failure rates at the egg stage (18 days, comprising 14 days incubation and 4 days laying).

Table of population changes for Treecreeper

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

CBC/BBS UK 35 1967-2002 157 7 -15 47

25 1977-2002 186 -16 -31 4

10 1992-2002 303 1 -11 12

5 1997-2002 358 -7 -18 1

CBC/BBS England 35 1967-2002 126 4 -21 44

25 1977-2002 147 -20 -35 9

10 1992-2002 234 -4 -16 7

5 1997-2002 270 -10 -19 0

CES adults 18 1984-2002 37 19 . .

10 1992-2002 43 8 . .

5 1997-2002 43 -6 . .

CES juveniles 18 1984-2002 57 41 . .

10 1992-2002 68 24 . .

5 1997-2002 67 22 . .

BBS UK 9 1994-2003 268 9 -7 27

BBS England 9 1994-2003 198 -2 -18 16

BBS Wales 9 1994-2003 37 39 -12 118

BBS Wales graph

Table of productivity information for Treecreeper

Variable	Period (yrs)	Years	Mean annual sample	Trend	Predicted in first year	Predicted in last year	Change	Comment
Clutch size	34	1968-2002	14	Linear decline	5.4 eggs	5.06 eggs	-0.34 eggs	Small sample
Brood size	34	1968-2002	29	None				Small sample
Daily failure rate (eggs)	34	1968-2002	23	Linear decline	0.0197 nests/day	0.0064 nests/day	-0.0133 nests/day	Small sample
Daily failure rate (chicks)	34	1968-2002	24	None				Small sample
Laying date	34	1968-2002	14	Linear decline	day 127	day 120	-7 days	Small sample
Percentage juveniles (CES)	18	1984-2002	64	Smoothed trend	89 productivity index	102 productivity index	12%
Percentage juveniles (CES)	10	1992-2002	76	Smoothed trend	97 productivity index	102 productivity index	3%
Percentage juveniles (CES)	5	1997-2002	76	Smoothed trend	81 productivity index	102 productivity index	24%


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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