Goldcrest
Regulus regulus
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Distribution Britain 2,327 (-0.6%) Ireland 852 (-6.6%)
Numbers breeding: Britain 560,000 Ireland 300,000 European status: 10,500,000 (8% in Britain and Ireland =4) British population trend: declining badly (-60% CBC){0%} How likely are you to record it? 1099 squares (24.5%) Ranked 43 [23=] |
By the end of the 19th century the Goldcrest seems to have been breeding virtually throughout mainland Britain and Ireland — and also on the Inner Hebrides — following expansion due to new forestry plantations maturing in many areas. Expansion in the Western Isles from breeding in Stornoway Woods, on Orkney from 1945 and even on Shetland has been recorded. The populations have always been very vulnerable to cold winter weather and the CBC index seems to have increased ten-fold after 1962/63. However this peak has never been regained and the smoothed CBC index has been falling steadily over the last 20 years. There have been one or two rather cold winters during this period but the birds do not seem to have responded to the many mild winters that intervened in the way expected. The only good news is that the five-year BBS rose by 42% between 1994 and 1998. The density map in the second Breeding Atlas shows that there are few in England north of the Thames compared with other areas. Perhaps we should be getting seriously worried about the lowland populations of these birds.
The following Bird On! sketch is available:
Goldcrest
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead