BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Tree Pipit

TREE PIPIT
Anthus trivialis

Tree Pipit © Peter Beaven

Conservation listings

Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: amber (>50% population decline, but data possibly unrepresentative)

Long-term trend

England: rapid decline

Distribution maps

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

Status summary

The species has recently been moved from the green to the amber list, on the strength of its population decline.Tree Pipits occur in greatest abundance in Wales, northern England and Scotland, and thus the marked CBC decline between the two atlas periods may reflect the range contraction that has occurred in central and southeast England (Gibbons et al. 1993). Subsequently, CBC/BBS data for England have shown further decrease, levelling off in the late 1990s. Since 1994, the UK index has been stable: substantial decrease in England and in Wales has been balanced by increases in Scotland, although no separate trend is available from there. The causes of the population decline are unclear, but may be linked to changing forest structure, as new plantations mature, and toincreased grazing pressure in woodland (Vanhinsbergh et al. 2001). Improvements have occurred in breeding performance, with a substantial increase in brood size and a decline in failure rates over the 17-day egg stage (13 days incubation and 4 days laying).

Table of population changes for Tree Pipit

Source	Period (yrs)	Years	Plots (n)	Change (%)	Lower limit	Upper limit	Alert	Comment
CBC/BBS England	35	1967-2002	41	-80	-90	-64	>50
	25	1977-2002	44	-81	-89	-68	>50
	10	1992-2002	64	-55	-70	-35	>50
	5	1997-2002	74	-8	-26	9
BBS UK	9	1994-2003	119	-1	-19	21
BBS England	9	1994-2003	63	-26	-43	-4	(>25)
BBS Wales	9	1994-2003	30	-45	-64	-15	(>25)

Table of productivity information for Tree Pipit

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

Clutch size 34 1968-2002 10 None Small sample

Brood size 34 1968-2002 29 Linear increase 4.35 chicks 4.75 chicks 0.4 chicks Small sample

Daily failure rate (eggs) 34 1968-2002 12 Linear decline 0.0401 nests/day 0.0114 nests/day -0.0287 nests/day Small sample

Daily failure rate (chicks) 34 1968-2002 19 None Small sample

Laying date 34 1968-2002 19 Linear decline day 146 day 135 -11 days Small sample

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