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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 suffered a severe population crash caused by organochlorine pesticides in the 1950s and 1960s, when the species was extinguished from large areas of lowland Britain (Newton 1986). Following a ban on the use of organochlorines, the species increased and spread, and became common enough on CBC plots for annual monitoring in the early 1970s. Between then and the mid 1990s, the CBC charted a steep increase. 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 intraspecific 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 31 1975-2006 131 166 78 360    
  25 1981-2006 156 69 28 139    
  10 1996-2006 291 2 -8 12    
  5 2001-2006 300 -2 -10 7    
BBS UK 11 1995-2006 315 5 -7 16    
  10 1996-2006 325 5 -5 16    
  5 2001-2006 362 0 -9 10    
BBS England 11 1995-2006 262 0 -11 12    
  10 1996-2006 269 2 -8 12    
  5 2001-2006 300 -3 -10 5    

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 2006		 Change Comment
Clutch size 38 1968-2006 36 None        
Brood size 38 1968-2006 71 Curvilinear 3.11 chicks 3.45 chicks 10.9%  
Daily failure rate (eggs) 38 1968-2006 34 Linear decline 0.47% nests/day 0.09% nests/day -80.9%  
Daily failure rate (chicks) 38 1968-2006 48 None        
Laying date 38 1968-2006 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., 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 06.04.2009