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BTO Blueline
SPARROWHAWK
Accipiter nisus
Sparrowhawk © Tommy Holden
 

• 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
England: rapid increase
UK population size
40,100 pairs in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
Sparrowhawks increased strongly in the UK as the population recovered from the crash caused by organochlorine pesticides in the 1950s and 1960s (Newton 1986). The species became common enough on CBC plots for annual monitoring in the early 1970s, and many former haunts especially in the Midlands and east of England were reoccupied between the two atlas periods (Gibbons et al. 1993). Improving breeding performance is likely to have contributed to this remarkable period of success: failure rates at the egg stage (c.44 days from laying the first egg) fell markedly from high initial values, and brood sizes increased throughout. The population has stabilised since the mid 1990s and, possibly through the effects of interspecific competition, average brood size has begun to drop again.
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS England graph
 
Table of population changes for Sparrowhawk

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
CBC/BBS England 30 1975-2005 123 179 77 339    
  25 1980-2005 142 87 40 168    
  10 1995-2005 277 4 -5 14    
  5 2000-2005 281 2 -5 10    
BBS UK 10 1995-2005 300 6 -6 16    
  5 2000-2005 328 1 -8 10    
BBS England 10 1995-2005 250 5 -6 18    
  5 2000-2005 274 2 -6 12    

BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Table of productivity changes for Sparrowhawk

Variable Period
(yrs)		 Years Mean
annual
sample		 Trend Modelled
in first year		 Modelled
in 2005		 Change Comment
Clutch size 37 1968-2005 37 None        
Brood size 37 1968-2005 72 Curvilinear 3.1 chicks 3.48 chicks 12.1%  
Daily failure rate (eggs) 37 1968-2005 34 Curvilinear 0.25% nests/day 0.02% nests/day -92%  
Daily failure rate (chicks) 37 1968-2005 48 None        
Laying date 37 1968-2005 14 None       Small sample

 
Clutch size graph
Brood size graph
Egg nest failure graph
Chick nest failure graph
Laying date graph

 

 

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
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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