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BTO Blueline
NUTHATCH
Sitta europaea
 Nuthatch © 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
UK, England: rapid increase
UK population size
144,000 territories in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
Nuthatch abundance in the UK has increased rapidly since the mid 1970s. Despite minor setbacks during the 1990s, there is no indication yet of a halt to the upward trend. This increase has been accompanied by a range expansion into northern England (Gibbons et al. 1993) and southern Scotland, and has been associated with a large increase in brood size, reduced nest failure, and linear increase in the number of fledglings per breeding attempt. In Wales, numbers now appear to be in decline. The reasons for these changes are unknown. A trend towards earlier laying, perhaps as a result of climate change (Crick et al. 1997), has also been identified. Numbers have shown widespread moderate increase across Europe since 1980 (PECBMS 2010).
 
CBC/BBS UK graph

1967-2008: 178% (confidence interval 98% to 303%)

 
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., 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 10.09.2010