BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Skylark

SKYLARK
Alauda arvensis

• Population
changes

• Productivity
trends

• Additional
information

Conservation listings

Europe: SPEC category 3 (depleted)
UK: red (>50% population decline)

Long-term trend

England: rapid decline

UK population size

1,785,000 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06); 801,000–1,003,000 pairs in Britain in 1997 (Browne et al. 2000)

Status summary

The Skylark declined rapidly from the mid 1970s until the mid 1980s, when the rate of decline slowed; more recent data show, however, that further decline has occurred, at least in England. Considerable research effort at the BTO and elsewhere in recent years has indicated that the most likely cause of the decline is the increase in the winter sowing of cereals, which restricts opportunities for late-season nesting attempts because of vegetation height, and may reduce overwinter survival by reducing the area of stubbles (Wilson et al. 1997, Donald & Vickery 2000; for more information, click here). Breeding success per nesting attempt increased during the decline (Chamberlain & Crick 1999, Siriwardena et al. 2000b) but, since 2000, nest losses have apparently increased and previous gains in clutch and brood sizes have been lost. For a general review of the effects of agricultural practice on Skylark population trends, see Chamberlain & Siriwardena (2000).

Population changes

Productivity trends

Insufficient data on CES
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 28 April, 2006