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BTO Blueline
TUFTED DUCK
Aythya fuligula
Tufted Duck © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 3 (declining)
UK: green
Long-term trend
UK: shallow increase
UK population size
7,000–8,000 pairs in GB in 1979–83 (Owen et al. 1986: APEP06); 10,200–11,500 pairs in UK in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using WBS trend: BiE04)
Status summary
The colonisation of the UK by Tufted Ducks, which began in 1849, was aided by the spread of the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha, which had been introduced accidentally to Britain a few decades earlier. The long-term shallow increase shown by WBS, and the 15% increase in range in Britain between the two atlas periods (Gibbons et al. 1993) may indicate that population expansion and in-filling of range are still occurring. BBS data suggest significant further increase since 1994, in England and in the UK as a whole. The species' winter trend in the UK since the 1960s, which includes many continental visitors, is also shallowly upward overall (Collier et al. 2005). In contrast, moderate recent declines elsewhere in northern Europe have resulted in a reclassification as a species of conservation concern.
 

Population changes
WBS UK graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Productivity information is not currently 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 19 May, 2006