Nesting problems hit linnets
23 May 2001
Nesting problems hit linnets
By FWi staff
LINNETS are suffering catastrophic nesting problems, leading to a dramatic decline of the once-common farmland bird, reports the Daily Express.
The nest failure rate, when birds do not manage to produce a single chick, have risen from 39% to 53% in the past 30 years.
This decline is revealed in the British Trust for Ornithology Nest Record Scheme, which has been running since 1939.
Other species suffering nesting problems, and which have been placed on the BTO danger list, include the moorhen, ringed plover and willow warbler.
A BTO spokesman said the reasons for many of these declines were a mystery, although a well-documented decline of lapwings was linked to farming.
Autumn sowing increased disturbance from farm machinery during the breeding season, and intensive production hit invertebrate numbers, he said.
Successes were recorded by the BTO among yellowhammers, sedge warblers, dunnocks, meadow pipits and greenfinches.
Chaffinches, robins and blue-, great- and long-tailed tits are also enjoying a population boom.
- British birds threatened by farming, FWi, 07 February, 2000
- Pondering the reasons for their decline, FWi, 14 January, 2000
- Daily Express, 23 May, 2001, page 18
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