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BTO Blueline
LITTLE GREBE
Tachybaptus ruficollis

Little Grebe © Derek Belsey
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: amber (25–50% population decline)
Long-term trend
UK: uncertain
UK population size
5,900–12,000 pairs in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 3,800–13,000 pairs in 2000 (updated using CBC and WBS trends: BiE04)
Status summary
The rapid decline shown by the WBS/WBBS may reveal problems among birds on linear waterways during the early 1980s and since the late 1990s, while shallow increases shown by the CBC and by BBS may suggest that wider populations (including birds on small still waters) are healthy. Because of the shortage of data, and the conflict between WBS and BBS assessments, the rapid decline indicated by WBS in the 1980s did not initially trigger a conservation listing. The species was moved from the green to the amber list in 2009, however, on the strength of its UK decline. In an analysis of nest record cards, Moss & Moss (1993) found that nests on ponds and lakes were significantly more successful than those on rivers and streams and that nests on rivers, subject to fluctuating water levels, experienced significantly higher failure rates through flooding than those on canals, where water levels are artificially maintained. Winter numbers, as monitored by WeBS, have shown sustained shallow increase (Calbrade et al. 2010).
 
Waterways UK graph

1975-2008: -39% (confidence interval -69% to 18%)

 
Population changes in detail
 
Demographic trends
 
Additional information
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This report should be cited as: Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Leech, D.I., Renwick, A.R., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G., Barimore, C., Conway, G.J., Downie, I.S., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2010). Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2010. BTO Research Report No. 565. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 03.09.2010