Andrew Stanbury

The status of our bird populations: the fifth Birds of Conservation Concern in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and second IUCN Red List assessment of extinction risk for Great Britain

The fifth review of Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC5) in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man assessed and assigned 245 species to updated Red, Amber and Green lists of conservation concern and showed a continuing decline in the status of our bird populations.

In total, 70 species (29% of those assessed) are now on the Red list, up from 36 species in the first review in 1996. Since the last review, in 2015, Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus has been lost as a breeding species. Eleven species have been moved to the Red list, while only six species moved from Red to Amber. Newly Red-listed species include Common Swift Apus apus, House Martin Delichon urbicum, Greenfinch Chloris chloris and the globally threatened Leach’s Storm-petrel Oceanodroma leucorhoa.

There has been no improvement in the overall status of species associated with farmland and upland, or Afro-Palearctic migrants; indeed, more such species have been Red-listed. Concerns over the status of our wintering wildfowl and wader populations have also increased. As a direct result of targeted conservation action, White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla has been moved from Red to Amber.

We also present the separate, and distinct, second IUCN Regional Red List assessment of extinction risk for Great Britain, which shows that 46% of 235 regularly occurring species, and 43% of 285 separate breeding and non-breeding populations, are assessed as being threatened with extinction from Great Britain.

Date

01 December 2021

RSPB Authors

Andrew Stanbury, Dr Mark Eaton

Authors

Stanbury, Andrew Eaton, Mark Aebischer, Nicholas Balmer, Dawn Brown, Andy Douse, Andy Lindley, Patrick McCulloch, Neil Noble, David Win, Ilka

Published in

British Birds

Birds of conservation concern in Ireland 4: 2020–2026

This is the fourth review of the status of birds in Ireland. Two hundred and eleven species were assessed and assigned to the Red, Amber or Green list of conservation concern.

The criteria mainly follow previous assessments of conservation status at global and European levels; and within Ireland, include historical decline, trends in population and range, rarity, localised distribution and international importance. The availability of more data has allowed us to move closer towards the ideal time windows of existing criteria.

Results show 23 species moving onto the Red list and only six leaving it. Twelve species are newly Red-listed due to changed European or global status. Three are Red-listed due to declines within the expanded short-term breeding time period. There is no doubt that having 54 (25.6%) of Ireland’s regularly occurring bird species now on the Red list is alarming, with some species having shown dramatic declines and losses on this island.

Existing conservation concerns are reinforced, such as the further catastrophic decline of waders with six more wading bird species joining the Red list; and generalist birds of farmland, like Kestrel Falco tinnunculus now Red-listed.

When grouped by habitat, upland (50%) and farmland (35%) have the highest proportions of Red-listed species. Snipe Gallinago gallinago is now Red-listed with severe declines in its breeding and wintering populations and Swift Apus apus is Red-listed due to a decline in its breeding population. Good news comes from some recovery in the populations of species such as Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus and European Herring Gull Larus argentatus which move from Red to Amber.

Date

01 May 2021

RSPB Authors

Dr Gillian Gilbert, Andrew Stanbury

Authors

Gilbert, Gillian Stanbury, Andrew Lewis, Lesley

Published in

Irish Birds

The State of Nature 2019

The State of Nature report 2019 presents an overview of how wildlife is faring in the UK and its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. Additionally, it assesses the pressures that are acting on nature, and the responses being made, collectively, to counter these pressures

Date

07 October 2019

RSPB Authors

Dr Daniel Hayhow, Dr Mark Eaton, Dr Fiona Burns, Andrew Stanbury, Will Kirby, Dr Joelene Hughes

Authors

Hayhow, Daniel Eaton, Mark Burns, Fiona Stanbury, Andrew Kirby, Will Bailey, Neil Beckmann, Björn C. Bedford, Jacob Boersch-Supan, Philipp Coomber, Frazer Dennis, Emily Dolman, Sarah Dunn, Euan Hall, Jonathan Harrower, Colin Hatfield, Jack Hawley, Jenny Haysom, Karen Hughes, Joelene Symes, Nigel

Prioritising islands in the United Kingdom and crown dependencies for the eradication of invasive alien vertebrates and rodent biosecurity

Invasive alien vertebrates (IAVs) pose a significant threat to island biodiversity worldwide, and their removal is an important nature conservation management goal. As methods advance, eradications from larger islands and of multiple species simultaneously are increasingly undertaken. Effective targeting to maximise...

Date

01 February 2017

RSPB Authors

Dr Mark Eaton, Dr Steffen Oppel

Authors

Stanbury, A., Thomas, S., Aegerter, J., Brown, A., Bullock, D.J., Eaton, M., Lock, L., Luxmoore, R., Roy, S., Whitaker, S. & Oppel, S.

Published in

European Journal of Wildlife Research 63

Changes in the abundance and distribution of a montane bird, the Dotterel, in the UK over 25 years

Capsule: The number of Dotterel breeding in the UK declined by 57% between 1987/88 and 2011, from 980 to 423 breeding males; there has been a contraction of the species’ geographical range as well as declining numbers on core sites.

Date

22 September 2015

RSPB Authors

Dr Daniel Hayhow, Dr Steven Ewing, Dr Mark Eaton

Authors

Hayhow, D.B., Ewing, S.R., Baxter, A., Douse, A., Stanbury, A., Whitfield, D.P. & Eaton, M.A

Published in

Bird Study