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WILLOW TIT
Poecile montana
Willow Tit © Rob Robinson
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: red (>50% population decline)
UK Biodiversity Action Plan: priority species
Long-term trend
UK, England: rapid decline
UK population size
8,500 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
Willow Tits have been in decline since the mid 1970s, and have become extinct in an ever-growing number of former haunts. The continuing decline in the CBC/BBS index through the 1990s, following a brief period of stability during the 1980s, is replicated in the CES abundance trend. The UK conservation listing has recently been upgraded from amber to red. Numbers have changed least in the wet woodlands that the species prefers (Siriwardena 2004). Farmland is now only rarely occupied. The most likely causes of decline are competition with other tit species, increasing nest predation by Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and deterioration in the quality of woodland as feeding habitat for Willow Tits through canopy closure and increased browsing by deer (Perrins 2003, Siriwardena 2004, Fuller et al. 2005). A study of former CBC sites and other woods that were known to have held the species in the past found that the sites still holding Willow Tits tended to be wetter but did not differ in the density of potential nest predators or avian competitors (Lewis et al. 2007). Willow Tit is one of the most strongly declining bird species in Europe, having decreased at an annual rate of 4% during 1980–2005, but has declined to a lesser extent in central and east Europe than in the north, west and south (PECBMS 2007).
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Willow Tit

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
CBC/BBS UK 39 1967-2006 43 -85 -93 -72 >50  
  25 1981-2006 44 -82 -90 -69 >50  
  10 1996-2006 60 -64 -72 -51 >50  
  5 2001-2006 47 -33 -47 -14 >25  
CBC/BBS England 39 1967-2006 40 -83 -92 -70 >50  
  25 1981-2006 40 -82 -91 -72 >50  
  10 1996-2006 53 -62 -71 -51 >50  
  5 2001-2006 40 -34 -51 -17 >25  
CES adults 22 1984-2006 20 -58 -89 -25 >50  
  10 1996-2006 15 -49 -82 -4 >25 Small sample
CES juveniles 22 1984-2006 28 -58 -78 -35 >50  
  10 1996-2006 21 -55 -72 -38 >50  
  5 2001-2006 14 -20 -53 17   Small sample
BBS UK 11 1995-2006 54 -66 -74 -54 >50  
  10 1996-2006 53 -64 -72 -51 >50  
  5 2001-2006 47 -36 -51 -21 >25  
BBS England 11 1995-2006 47 -66 -75 -57 >50  
  10 1996-2006 46 -63 -72 -54 >50  
  5 2001-2006 40 -36 -52 -19 >25  

BBS acknowledgement
 
CBC/BBS England graph
CES adult abundance graph
CES juvenile abundance graph
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Table of productivity changes for Willow Tit

Variable Period
(yrs)		 Years Mean
annual
sample		 Trend Modelled
in first year		 Modelled
in 2006		 Change Comment
Juvenile to Adult ratio (CES) 22 1984-2006 31 Smoothed trend 118 Index value 100 Index value -15%  
Juvenile to Adult ratio (CES) 10 1996-2006 24 Smoothed trend 87 Index value 100 Index value 15%  
Juvenile to Adult ratio (CES) 5 2001-2006 16 Smoothed trend 88 Index value 100 Index value 13% Small sample

 

 

Insufficient data on clutch size
available for this species

 

 

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species

 

 

Insufficient data on nest failure
available for this species

 

 

Insufficient data on nestling failure available for this species

 

 

 

Insufficient data on laying date
available for this species
CES productivity graph
 

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