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GREY HERON
Ardea cinerea
Grey Heron © Mike Weston
 

• 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, England, Scotland: moderate increase
Wales: stable
UK population size
14,200 nests in 2003 (APEP06, this report)
Status summary
The BTO Heronries Census, which has monitored Grey Herons since 1928, shows the species to be more abundant now than ever before. The effects of harsh winters, which induce severe mortality in this species, are clearly visible in the long-term trend. The general increase that underlies these fluctuations may stem from reduced persecution, improvements in water quality, the provision of new habitat as new lakes and gravel pits mature, and increased feeding opportunities at freshwater fisheries (Gibbons et al. 1993, Marchant et al. 2004). In the latest special survey of UK heronries, carried out in 2003 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Heronries Census, a record total of more than 10,337 Grey Heron nests were counted. The current population estimates for that year, implying that almost 4,000 nests in the UK were not reported to the survey, allow for known heronries (mostly in Scotland) that were not visited in 2003, but not for the few areas, mainly in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where heronries have never been counted. This issue was addressed by random tetrad searches conducted in 2003 and 2004.

High rates of nest failure at the chick stage were noted in the late 1960s, but not subsequently. The mean laying date has advanced by almost a whole month since 1968.
 

Population changes
Herons UK graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
Census of England graph
Census of England & Wales graph
Census of Scotland graph
Census of Wales graph
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
BBS Scotland graph
BBS Wales graph
 

Productivity trends
 
Clutch size graph
Brood size graph
Egg nest failure graph
Chick nest failure graph
Laying date graph

 

 

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species
 

Additional information
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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 19 May, 2006