The 2006 farmland bird Public Service Agreement (PSA) indicator for England, 1966-2005

An updated farmland bird indicator for England has been produced for the period 1966 to 2005, using joint CBC/BBS or anchored trends as appropriate for 19 species within the indicator. As in the production of standard farmland indicators for the Framework UK Wild Bird and England Biodiversity Strategy indicators, this indicator is a geometric mean calculated across individual species indices. However, unlike the other indicators, smoothed species indices are used, in order to reduce the level of noise in the indicator and reveal underlying trends.

Although there has been almost negligible change in the indicator for the last nine years (stable around the 51-52% level), it did show a very slight decline from the 2004 value. It remains down by 48% from its earliest (1966) value.

The 19 farmland bird species whose trends make up the indicator show mixed fortunes since last year, with 11 species declining, seven increasing and one (Skylark) showing virtually no change. Many resident seed-eaters (Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Reed Bunting and, encouragingly, Corn Bunting) increased slightly between 2004 and 2005, Yellowhammer and Linnet continued recent declines, and the recovery of Tree Sparrow faltered. All three long-distance migrants (Yellow Wagtail, Turtle Dove and Whitethroat) declined, as did Starling, Grey Partridge, Lapwing, Rook and Stock Dove. The other increasing species were Kestrel, Woodpigeon and Jackdaw.

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