BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Blackbird

BLACKBIRD
Turdus merula

• Population
changes

• Productivity
trends

• Additional
information

Conservation listings

Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: green

Long-term trend

UK, England: shallow decline

UK population size

4,935,000 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)

Status summary

Both CBC/BBS and CES data show long-term declines in Blackbird abundance, but recent increases suggest that the population has begun to recover. The moderate-decline criteria for amber listing and for BTO alerts are no longer met, and the species is now listed as green. CBC results indicate that the decline began in the mid 1970s. Nest success has improved over this period, and it is likely that reduced survival drove the decline (Siriwardena et al. 1998a). Agricultural intensification is likely to have contributed (Fuller et al. 1995), but, since numbers fell in woodland as well as farmland, additional factors probably operated.

Population changes

Productivity trends

Additional information


	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 2007. BTO Research Report No. 487. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends) Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 3 January, 2008