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BTO Blueline

SHELDUCK
Tadorna tadorna
Shelduck © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: amber (localised in winter, >20% of NW European population in winter)
Long term-trend
UK: rapid increase
UK population size
10,900 pairs in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 5,800–10,800 pairs in 2000 (updated using CBC and BBS trends: BiE04)
Status summary
Shelducks occurred on relatively few CBC plots, most of which were close to a coast or an estuary, and it is unclear how well the CBC trend represents that of the population as a whole. The CBC showed a substantial increase from the mid 1960s until the early 1980s, some decrease during the 1980s, and stability during the 1990s, although the wide confidence intervals provide scope for other interpretations of this trend. Population increase was associated with expansion of range, measured at 20% in Britain between 1968–72 and 1988–91 (Gibbons et al. 1993). The UK winter Shelduck population rose during the 1960s and 1970s, alongside the rise in breeding numbers, but has been falling again since the mid 1990s, as has the BBS trend (Collier et al. 2005). The ten-year BBS decline provisionally raises a BTO alert.
 

Population changes
CBC all habitats graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Productivity information is not currently 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 19 May, 2006