BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Yellow Wagtail

YELLOW WAGTAIL
Motacilla flava

• Population
changes

• Productivity
trends

• Additional
information

Conservation listings

Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: amber (25–50% population decline)

Long-term trend

UK, England: rapid decline

UK population size

11,500–26,500 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS and WBS trends: BiE04, APEP06)

Status summary

Britain holds almost the entire population of the distinctive race flavissima, and so population changes in the UK are of special signficance. Yellow Wagtails have been in decline since the early 1980s, according to CBC/BBS and especially WBS, and have now been moved from the green to the amber list. Further losses since 1999 already suggest that red listing is appropriate. Monitoring samples along waterways may soon become too small to continue the annual index. Gibbons et al. (1993) identified a range contraction towards a core area in central England, concurrent with the early years of decline. Farmland drainage, the conversion of pasture to arable land, the change from spring to winter cereals, and the loss of insects associated with cattle have been cited as possible causes (Gibbons et al. 1993, Nelson et al. 2003). Although nest record sample sizes are small, there has been a notable reduction in brood size since the mid 1960s.

Population changes

Productivity trends

Insufficient data on clutch size
available for this species

Insufficient data on nest failure
available for this species

Insufficient data on nestling failure
available for this species

Insufficient data on laying date
available for this species

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species

Additional information


	BTO Home \| JNCC Home BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, UK. © British Trust for Ornithology (Registered Charity Number 216652). Terms and Conditions \| Privacy Statement Email:
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