Wider Countryside Report Header
BTO Blueline
Main WCR menu image Site navigation menu item Results overview menu item Other info menu item BTO website menu item
BTO Blueline
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER Locustella naevia
Grasshopper Warbler © BTO
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: red (>50% population decline)
UK Biodiversity Action Plan: in preparation
Long-term trend
UK: rapid decline
UK population size
11,750 pairs in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 12,300 pairs in 2000 (updated using BBS trend: BiE04)
Status summary
Grasshopper Warbler was previously amber-listed because of a contraction in range during the period preceding the 1988–91 Atlas, reportedly due to habitat loss (Gibbons et al. 1993). The CBC index suffered from small and severely dwindling sample sizes, but the available data indicate a rapid population decline between the mid 1960s and mid 1980s, when numbers became too small for annual monitoring (Marchant et al. 1990). On this basis, the species is now red-listed. The BBS shows wide fluctuations in abundance since 1994, and currently an overall moderate increase. Given suitable habitat and conditions, the species has high reproductive potential, as demonstrated by analysis of nest record data (Glue 1990).
 

Population changes
BBS UK graph
 
BBS acknowledgement
 

Productivity trends
No productivity information available for this species
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
BirdWeb logo, click to go to BirdWeb

BTO Home | JNCC Home
 © British Trust for Ornithology. Charity No 216652 (England and Wales).
Company Limited by Guarantee No 357284 (England and Wales).
Registered Office: The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, UK.
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., Barimore, C., Coombes, R.H.,
Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. & Thewlis, R.M. (2007)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2006.
BTO Research Report No. 470. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 15 June, 2007