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BTO Blueline
LAPWING
Vanellus vanellus

Lapwing © Mike Weston
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 2, vulnerable
UK: amber (25–50% population decline, >20% European wintering population)
Long-term trend
UK: moderate decline  
UK population size
156,000 (137,000–174,000) pairs in 1985–99 (O'Brien 2005: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
The amber listing of this species is now based on UK decline, as well as the original criterion of international importance. CBC recorded some increase in its early years, and on WBS plots increase continued until the mid 1980s. Lapwings declined rapidly on lowland farmland through the 1980s, probably because changes in agricultural practice led to reduced productivity (Hudson et al. 1994, Siriwardena et al. 2000a). Adult and first-year survival rates show no trend through time (Peach et al. 1994, Catchpole et al. 1999). National surveys in England and Wales showed a 49% population decline between 1987 and 1998 (Wilson et al. 2001). Population declines in excess of 50% over 15 years in Northern Ireland (Henderson et al. 2002) mirror similar declines throughout grassland areas of Wales and southeast England (Wilson et al. 2001, 2004). BBS data indicate little change in England since 1994, but steep decline in Scotland. There has been minor increase in mean clutch size as the population has fallen.
 

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

Productivity trends
 
Clutch size graph

 

 

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species
Egg nest failure graph

 

 

Insufficient data on nestling failure
available for this species
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 2 May, 2006