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BTO Blueline
CORN BUNTING
Emberiza calandra
Corn Bunting © Nicholas Watts
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 2 (declining)
UK: red (>50% population decline, historical decline)
Long-term trend
UK, England: rapid decline
UK population size
8,500–12,200 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
Following an earlier, historical decrease, Corn Buntings declined very steeply between the mid 1970s and mid 1980s, with local extinctions across large sections of their former range. Subsequently the decline has continued, but at a much-reduced rate. Breeding performance per nesting attempt has increased considerably over this period (Crick 1997), but it is also reported that fewer birds now raise a second brood, thus reducing productivity overall (Brickle & Harper 2002). Ring-recovery sample sizes do not permit an analysis of survival rates (Siriwardena et al. 1998b, 2000b). Any decrease there has been in survival rates is probably a result of the deleterious effects of agricultural intensification on seed availability in winter (Donald 1997). With declines across much of its European range, this previously 'secure' species is now provisionally evaluated as 'declining' (BirdLife International 2004).
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS UK graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
CBC/BBS England graph
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
 

 

 

Insufficient data on clutch size
available for this species
Brood size graph
Egg nest failure graph
Chick nest failure graph
Laying date graph

 

 

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
BirdWeb logo, click to go to BirdWeb

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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., 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. (2006)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2005.
BTO Research Report No. 435. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 27 April, 2006