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
TREE SPARROW
Passer montanus
Tree Sparrow © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 3 (declining)
UK: red (>50% population decline)
UK Biodiversity Action Plan: click here
Long-term trend
England: rapid decline
UK population size
68,000 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
Tree Sparrow abundance crashed spectacularly in the UK between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. BBS data indicate significant increase since 1994, but it should be remembered that, for every Tree Sparrow today there were around 30 in the 1970s, and any recovery therefore has a very long way to go. Clear range contractions occurred between the two breeding atlas periods (Gibbons et al. 1993), and have continued subsequently, with many local extinctions occurring during the 1990s. Components of agricultural intensification, such as reductions in winter stubble, are likely to be implicated in the decline. Breeding performance has improved substantially as population sizes have decreased, suggesting that decreases in productivity were not responsible for the decline. It is more likely that survival was the critical demographic measure, although ring-recovery analyses have produced equivocal results because of small sample sizes (Siriwardena et al. 1998b, 2000b). Following declines across western and northwestern Europe during the 1990s, the European status of this species is no longer considered 'secure' (BirdLife International 2004).
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS England graph
 
Table of population changes for Tree Sparrow

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
CBC/BBS England 38 1967-2005 81 -97 -99 -94 >50  
  25 1980-2005 77 -94 -97 -90 >50  
  10 1995-2005 123 29 7 58    
  5 2000-2005 117 17 -2 38    
BBS UK 10 1995-2005 141 55 13 101    
  5 2000-2005 143 42 12 73    
BBS England 10 1995-2005 117 24 4 47    
  5 2000-2005 116 17 2 37    

BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Table of productivity changes for Tree Sparrow

Variable Period
(yrs)		 Years Mean
annual
sample		 Trend Modelled
in first year		 Modelled
in 2005		 Change Comment
Clutch size 37 1968-2005 135 Curvilinear 4.69 eggs 5.08 eggs 8.3%  
Brood size 37 1968-2005 165 Curvilinear 3.75 chicks 4.13 chicks 10%  
Daily failure rate (eggs) 37 1968-2005 179 Linear decline 0.85% nests/day 0.4% nests/day -52.9%  
Daily failure rate (chicks) 37 1968-2005 130 Linear decline 1.38% nests/day 0.88% nests/day -36.2%  
Laying date 37 1968-2005 148 Linear decline May 29 May 24 -5 days  

 
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
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 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