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BTO Blueline
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BTO Blueline
REED WARBLER
Acrocephalus scirpaceus
Reed Warbler © Graham Austin
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: green
Long-term trend
UK: uncertain
UK population size
60,800–122,000 pairs in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
This species has an unusually clumped distribution, with very high breeding concentrations in Phragmites reedbeds, where numbers are very hard to census. Because of this, CES, which has many sites in reedbeds, may be a better measure of population change than either CBC/BBS or WBS, where the species is encountered mainly at low density or in linear habitats. CES shows a decline from 1983 until the early 1990s, followed by a partial recovery, and another, much more recent decline. Both CBC/BBS and WBS show progressive moderate increases, perhaps linked to increasingly sensitive management of small and linear wetland sites and to the range expansion the species has achieved since the 1960s. Breeding performance as measured by brood size and failure rates has improved slightly, and a small improvement is apparent in CES productivity. The trend towards earlier laying can be partly explained by recent climate change (Crick & Sparks 1999).
 

Population changes
CES adult abundance graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
CBC/BBS UK graph
CBC/BBS England graph
WBS UK graph
CES juvenile abundance 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
CES productivity graph
 

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 28 April, 2006