BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Great Crested Grebe

GREAT CRESTED GREBE
Podiceps cristatus

• Population
changes

• Productivity
trends

• Additional
information

Conservation listings

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

Long-term trend

UK: probable increase

UK population size

9,400 adults in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 6,100 pairs in 2000 (updated using BBS trend: BiE04)

Status summary

This species was believed to be on the verge of extinction in Britain around 1860, when only 32–72 pairs were known in England (Holloway 1996). A subsequent increase followed reductions in persecution, aided by statutory protection, and the creation of habitat in the form of gravel pits (Gibbons et al. 1993). Increase was tracked by special surveys to around 7,000 adult birds in Britain by 1975 (Hughes et al. 1979). The BBS provides the first annual, national monitoring of this species and indicates shallow increase since 1994. Winter numbers, monitored by WeBS, have shown sustained shallow increase (Collier et al. 2005).

Population changes

Productivity trends

Productivity information is not currently 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