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BTO Blueline
WHINCHAT
Saxicola rubetra
 Whinchat © G H Higginbotham
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: amber (25–50% decline)
Long-term trend
UK: decline
UK population size
14,000–28,000 pairs in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 11,000–22,100 pairs in 2000 (updated using BBS trend: BiE04)
Status summary
Whinchats were not monitored until the BBS began in 1994. By then, however, Gibbons et al. (1993) had already identified a major range contraction, mainly from lowland England, that was probably at least partly due to the loss of marginal farmland habitats (Marchant et al. 1990). Further extinctions have occurred since then among the remaining pockets of lowland breeders. BBS data indicate that further strong population decline took place during the 1990s, raising BTO alerts for the UK as a whole as well as for England. Nest record samples are small, but indicate substantial recent rises in nest losses at the egg and chick stages, which are of NRS concern (Leech & Barimore 2008). Whinchats have declined rapidly across Europe since 1980 (PECBMS 2010). On the strength of its UK decline, Whinchat has recently been moved from the green to the amber list of conservation concern (Eaton et al. 2009).
 
BBS UK graph

1995-2008: -57% (confidence interval -68% to -39%)

 
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 10.09.2010