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BTO Blueline
COOT Fulica atra
Coot © G H Higginbotham
 

• 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: moderate increase
UK population size
22,600–28,800 pairs in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS and WBS trends: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
WBS and CBC/BBS trends for Coot indicate a long-term increase, although the magnitude of the change is not clear. Small CBC samples, mainly of birds on small water-bodies, suggested a rapid rise in the late 1960s. WBS and BBS both include more birds on larger waters, and so may be more representative of Coot populations, but WBS has not recorded the strong increase found by BBS observers since 1994. The combination of CBC and BBS data suggests that the long-term increase in the UK and England may have been rapid. Winter abundance on large still waters, as monitored by WeBS, showed shallow increase from the mid 1980s to around 2000/01 but has since declined, especially in Northern Ireland (Austin et al. 2008).
 

Population changes
WBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Coot

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
CBC/BBS UK 39 1967-2006 95 193 84 538    
  25 1981-2006 134 38 -6 89    
  10 1996-2006 259 26 6 52    
  5 2001-2006 274 -4 -15 11    
CBC/BBS England 39 1967-2006 87 186 86 484    
  25 1981-2006 121 36 -3 87    
  10 1996-2006 234 25 8 49    
  5 2001-2006 248 -5 -15 9    
WBS waterways 31 1975-2006 39 66 -16 223    
  25 1981-2006 42 40 -24 170    
  10 1996-2006 45 4 -42 41    
  5 2001-2006 36 8 -20 34    
BBS UK 11 1995-2006 235 34 15 64    
  10 1996-2006 243 27 11 52    
  5 2001-2006 274 -4 -11 8    
BBS England 11 1995-2006 212 34 11 56    
  10 1996-2006 219 27 8 46    
  5 2001-2006 248 -5 -16 7    

BBS acknowledgement
 
CBC/BBS UK graph
CBC/BBS England graph
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Productivity information is not currently 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., Leech, D.I., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G.,
Barimore, C., Grantham, M.J., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2009).
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2008.
BTO Research Report No. 516. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2009