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BTO Blueline
MARSH TIT
Poecile palustris
 Marsh Tit © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 3, declining
UK: red (>50% population decline)
Long-term trend
UK, England: rapid decline
UK population size
52,800 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP2)
Status summary
Marsh Tit abundance has declined rapidly, despite improvements in breeding performance. The species' UK conservation listing has recently been upgraded from amber to red. Detailed demographic work suggests that the decline may have been driven by low annual survival and that neither increased nest predation nor interspecific competition is responsible (G.M. Siriwardena, unpubl.). Marsh Tits nest in woods as small as half a hectare (Hinsley et al. 1995), but there is evidence from CBC that declines are steeper on smaller plots (G.M. Siriwardena, unpubl.). Reductions in the structural and floristic diversity of woodland, resulting partly from increased browsing by deer, are likely to have caused the decline (Perrins 2003, Fuller et al. 2005). Following declines elsewhere in western Europe during the 1990s, the European status of this species is no longer considered 'secure' (BirdLife International 2004).
 

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