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BTO Blueline
LITTLE GREBE
Tachybaptus ruficollis

Little Grebe © Derek Belsey
 

• 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: uncertain
UK population size
5,900–12,000 pairs in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 3,800–13,000 pairs in 2000 (updated using CBC and WBS trends: BiE04)
Status summary
The rapid decline shown by the WBS may reveal problems among birds on linear waterways during the early 1980s and late 1990s, while shallow increases shown by the CBC and by BBS may suggest that wider populations (including small still waters) are healthy. Because of the shortage of data, and the conflict between WBS and BBS assessments, the rapid decline indicated by WBS has not triggered a conservation listing. In an analysis of nest record cards, Moss & Moss (1993) found that nests on ponds and lakes were significantly more successful than those on rivers and streams and that nests on rivers, subject to fluctuating water levels, experienced significantly higher failure rates through flooding than those on canals, where water levels are artificially maintained. Winter numbers, monitored by WeBS, have shown sustained shallow increase (Collier et al. 2005).
 

Population changes
Waterways UK graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

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