Bearded Tit
Panurus biarmicus
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Distribution Britain 60 (+33.3%) Ireland 2
Numbers breeding: Britain 370 Ireland 0 European status: 250,000 (0% in Britain and Ireland) British population trend: seems relatively stable How likely are you to record it? 3 squares (0.1%) Ranked 171= |
A hundred years ago this reed-bed species was restricted to East Anglia — possibly just Norfolk — having previously been in many other counties where drainage had destroyed their habitat. Previous areas included the Severn, the Humber and Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Subsequently the Suffolk reed beds were re-colonised but the succession of cold winters between 1917 and 1963 hammered them — after 1947 they may have been down to two to four pairs! The 1962/63 winter did not affect the population as badly and immigration from the huge populations breeding on the Dutch polders partly fuelled a considerable expansion to include Humberside, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Essex by the time of the first Breeding Atlas. By the second Atlas they had reached Wicklow (Ireland) for about 10 years and at least two sites in Wales but then retreated from them. However Leighton Moss and many new sites along the South Coast and Thames Estuary were successfully colonised and breeding in Scotland was first recorded in 1991. An estimate of 408 pairs in 1992 is about two-thirds that estimated for 1980 and there may have been a recent increase almost to the level 20 years ago. They are also being helped by ingenious 'wigwams' of reeds which prove to be very successful nest sites! Vulnerable to cold weather but now breeding in a good number of widely spaced reed beds.
Campbell, L., Cayford, J. & Pearson, D. 1996 British Birds: 89, 335-346.
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead