Reed Bunting
Emberiza schoeniclus
   |
|
Distribution Britain 2,188 (-11.7%) Ireland 831 (-12.3%)
Numbers breeding: Britain 220,000 Ireland 130,000 European status: 3,600,000 (10% in Britain and Ireland =5) British population trend: severe declines (-64% CBC){-52%} How likely are you to record it? 682 squares (15.2%) Ranked 55 [32] |
At the end of the 19th century this was a very widespread and common bird of damp and wet habitats throughout Britain and Ireland but absent from Shetland, very patchy on the Western Isles but had colonised Orkney about 50 years earlier. Drainage of marshes and other wet areas will have restricted its breeding space but this may well have been balanced by the provision of new reservoirs, gravel pits, etc. About 70 years ago it was realised that the birds were starting to colonise dryer habitats including grassland, scrub and plantations as well as arable areas. The birds seem to have spread in Scotland to reach virtually all areas — first breeding on Shetland in 1948. The first Breeding Atlas might record their maximum spread as, by the second, they were lost from almost 12% of the 10-km squares they had occupied. The southern third of Ireland, the upland areas of Scotland and Wales and the South-west of England lost a lot of birds. CBC losses were particularly noticeable around 1980 and recently — 64% down over the period between 1972 and 1996. It seems that declining survival rates of the fledged birds may be responsible. No sign of any recovery but still present in most wetland sites.
Peach, W.J., Siriwardena, G.M. & Gregory, R.D. 1999 J. Appl. Ecol.: 36, 798-811.
UKBAP English Nature RSPB
The following Bird On! sketch is available:
Reed Bunting
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead