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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 at least the late 1980s (Austin et al. 2008), 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 39 1967-2006 427 166 111 226    
  25 1981-2006 608 34 14 55    
  10 1996-2006 1204 16 7 24    
  5 2001-2006 1286 -5 -10 0    
CBC/BBS England 39 1967-2006 360 205 138 279    
  25 1981-2006 510 44 20 71    
  10 1996-2006 1009 27 18 36    
  5 2001-2006 1078 2 -4 6    
WBS waterways 31 1975-2006 92 165 88 258    
  25 1981-2006 97 105 45 166    
  10 1996-2006 96 -3 -13 8    
  5 2001-2006 84 -4 -12 4    
BBS UK 11 1995-2006 1115 19 10 28    
  10 1996-2006 1151 16 8 24    
  5 2001-2006 1286 -3 -8 2    
BBS England 11 1995-2006 932 30 22 41    
  10 1996-2006 963 27 20 36    
  5 2001-2006 1078 4 -2 8    
BBS Scotland 11 1995-2006 92 -10 -24 5    
  10 1996-2006 93 -14 -26 -2    
  5 2001-2006 96 -26 -37 -17 >25  
BBS Wales 11 1995-2006 62 -9 -45 50    
  10 1996-2006 65 -1 -37 50    
  5 2001-2006 75 25 2 54    

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
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