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

REDSHANK
Tringa totanus

 Redshank © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 2 (declining)
UK: amber (>50% population decline but data possibly unrepresentative, >20% of East Atlantic Flyway population in winter)
Long-term trend
UK: moderate decline
UK population size
38,800 (31,400–44,400) pairs in 1985–99 (O'Brien 2005: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
UK population decline has recently been added to the criteria by which Redshank qualifies for amber listing. Considerable range contraction had occurred from many areas of the UK by 1988–91, probably as a result of the drainage of farmland (Gibbons et al. 1993). WBS results show a decline along waterways that apparently accelerated during the 1990s. BBS shows continuing overall decrease. Surveys in England and Wales revealed a decrease of 29% in breeding birds in wet meadows between 1982 and 2002 (Wilson et al. 2005). The substantial section of the British population that nests on saltmarshes decreased by 23% between 1985 and 1996, apparently as a result of increased grazing pressure (Brindley et al. 1998, Norris et al. 1998). Wintering populations (augmented by many Icelandic and some other northern European breeders) have been stable since the mid 1980s (Austin et al. 2008). The failure rate of nests at the egg stage has fallen steeply since the 1960s.
 

Population changes
WBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Redshank

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
WBS waterways 31 1975-2006 17 -49 -85 -16 >25 Small sample
  25 1981-2006 17 -45 -76 -22 >25 Small sample
  10 1996-2006 13 -33 -51 -12 >25 Small sample
  5 2001-2006 10 -2 -20 11   Small sample
BBS UK 11 1995-2006 76 -22 -39 -1    
  10 1996-2006 77 -21 -37 1    
  5 2001-2006 82 -6 -26 7    
BBS England 11 1995-2006 51 -16 -28 6    
  10 1996-2006 52 -20 -32 1    
  5 2001-2006 58 -27 -38 -7 >25  

BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Table of productivity changes for Redshank

Variable Period
(yrs)		 Years Mean
annual
sample		 Trend Modelled
in first year		 Modelled
in 2006		 Change Comment
Clutch size 38 1968-2006 30 None        
Daily failure rate (eggs) 38 1968-2006 33 Linear decline 3.98% nests/day 1.69% nests/day -57.5%  

 
Clutch size graph

 

 

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species
Egg nest failure graph

 

 

Insufficient data on nestling failure
available for this species

 

 

Insufficient data on laying date
available for this species

 

 

 

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species

 
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
 

BTO Home | JNCC Home
 © British Trust for Ornithology. Charity No 216652 (England and Wales).Charity No SC039193 (Scotland)
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., 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