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BTO Blueline
MALLARD
Anas platyrhynchos
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: green
Long-term trend
UK, England: rapid increase
UK population size
50,400–127,100 pairs in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 63,000–158,900 pairs in 2000 (updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04)
Status summary
The Mallard has increased steadily as a breeding bird in the UK since the 1960s, and especially in England, a trend to which ongoing large-scale releases for shooting may have contributed (Marchant et al. 1990). Mallards originating from domesticated birds and not resembling wild-type birds in either plumage or behaviour are very abundant but perhaps under-represented in survey data, especially since many individuals appear to be semi-captive. A large part of the increase in breeding numbers may be attributable to such birds, rather than to true-bred stock. Winter populations have declined since the late 1980s (Banks et al. 2006), linked apparently to a decrease in continental immigration (Mitchell et al. 2002).
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Mallard

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
CBC/BBS UK 38 1967-2005 396 167 107 240    
  25 1980-2005 550 37 19 62    
  10 1995-2005 1130 18 11 27    
  5 2000-2005 1202 -2 -7 3    
CBC/BBS England 38 1967-2005 333 202 126 271    
  25 1980-2005 460 46 24 76    
  10 1995-2005 944 28 19 36    
  5 2000-2005 1006 4 -2 10    
WBS waterways 30 1975-2005 92 166 93 281    
  25 1980-2005 96 114 51 192    
  10 1995-2005 99 1 -11 14    
  5 2000-2005 84 -6 -12 1    
BBS UK 10 1995-2005 1065 19 12 28    
  5 2000-2005 1185 -1 -6 3    
BBS England 10 1995-2005 888 28 21 38    
  5 2000-2005 991 5 -1 10    
BBS Scotland 10 1995-2005 90 -5 -23 13    
  5 2000-2005 89 -25 -35 -16    
BBS Wales 10 1995-2005 60 -9 -42 48    
  5 2000-2005 72 37 11 70    

BBS acknowledgement
 
CBC/BBS England graph
WBS UK graph
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
BBS Scotland graph
BBS Wales 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., 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