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BTO Blueline
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BTO Blueline
STARLING
Sturnus vulgaris
 Starling © Colin Varndell
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 3 (declining)
UK: red (>50% population decline)
Long-term trend
England: rapid decline
UK population size
804,000 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
The abundance of breeding Starlings in the UK has fallen rapidly, particularly since the early 1980s, and especially in woodland (Robinson et al. 2002). The declines have been greatest in the south and west of Britain; recent BBS data suggest that populations are currently more stable in Scotland and are even increasing in Northern Ireland, but the overall UK trend continues to be strongly downward. The species' UK conservation listing has been upgraded from amber to red as the decline has continued. Strong improvements have occurred in breeding performance, suggesting that decreasing survival rates, particularly of young birds, may be responsible for the observed decline (Freeman et al. 2002). Loss of the species' preferred feeding habitat, permanent pasture, and general intensification of livestock rearing are likely to be having adverse effects on farmland populations (Crick et al. 2002), but other causes should be sought in urban areas and perhaps in woodland. Widespread declines in northern Europe during the 1990s outweighed increases in the south, and the European status of this species is no longer considered 'secure' (BirdLife International 2004).
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS England graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
BBS Scotland graph
BBS Wales graph
BBS N Ireland 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
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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