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BTO Blueline
DIPPER
Cinclus cinclus
 Dipper © 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 (species level); amber (race gularis, >20% of European breeders; race hibernicus, >20% of European breeders, European status)
Long-term trend
UK waterways: moderate decline
UK population size
6,800–20,000 pairs in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using WBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
The WBS/WBBS shows that Dipper populations have fluctuated over the last thirty years, but with an overall downward trend. The species is unusually sensitive to acidity and other water pollution (Ormerod & Tyler 1989, 1990), with lower breeding densities and productivity on acidic than on more neutral streams (Ormerod et al. 1991, Vickery 1991, 1992). Breeding performance has improved strongly over time, and laying dates have shifted earlier, perhaps because of climate change (Crick & Sparks 1999). Broods now average larger than in the late 1960s and 1970s, and there has been substantial reduction in failure rates of nests at the egg stage, leading to sustained increase in the number of fledglings per breeding attempt.
 

1975-2007: -30% (confidence interval -45% to -7%)

 
Population changes in detail
 
 

 Demographic trends
Fledglings per breeding attempt graph
Laying date graph
 
 
More on demographic trends
 
Additional information
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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., Downie, I.S., Grantham, M.J., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2010). Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2009.
BTO Research Report No. 541. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2010