BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Curlew

CURLEW
Numenius arquata

• Population
changes

• Productivity
trends

• Additional
information

Conservation listings

Europe: SPEC category 2 (declining)
UK: amber (>20% of European breeding and winter populations)

Long-term trend

England: probable decline

UK population size

107,000 (99,500–125,000) pairs in 1985–99 (O'Brien 2005: BiE04, APEP06)

Status summary

Curlews monitored by CBC were mostly in lowland habitats and may have been affected primarily by drainage of farmland (Gibbons et al. 1993). Surveys in England and Wales revealed a decrease of 39% in breeding birds in wet meadows between 1982 and 2002 (Wilson et al. 2004). In Northern Ireland, a rapid breeding decline occurred between the mid 1980s and 1999 (Henderson et al. 2002). BBS data also show that decline has been widespread. WBS data, in contrast, indicate a moderate increase during the 1980s in Curlews nesting alongside waterways, followed by stability. Wintering Curlew abundance has shown a shallow long-term increase (Collier et al. 2005). Although samples are small, failure rate of nests at the egg stage have fallen slightly.

Population changes

Productivity trends

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species

Insufficient data on nestling failure
available for this species

Insufficient data on laying date
available for this species

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species

Additional information


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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 19 May, 2006