Capercaillie (Tetrao urugallus) – 174 lekking males in 2019, 49% decrease over 22 years (Title Photo)
Hi everyone, some of my eagle-eyed 🙂 readers have spotted that there are two number ‘5’ photos in the quiz, so I will be marking you out of 16 – you can call them 5(a) and 5(b) if you prefer, but if you’ve already answered I will understand what’s going on.
Dear Readers, this month saw the publication of British Birds magazine’s annual list of rare breeding birds in the UK (2019). How many can you identify? I am going to be mean and not make this multiple choice this week as you are getting far too good :-). I’ve included the number of breeding pairs and the 25 year trend, because not all of this is bad news – some species are actually increasing, and a few are edging back from the brink.
Answers in the comments by 5 p.m. UK time on Friday 12th November please, and the answers will be published on Saturday 13th November. As usual I will disappear the answers when I see them, but write them down first if you are easily influenced!
Here we go. Have fun!
1) 31 breeding pairs in the UK, but a strong increase of nearly 500% over the past 25 years
2) 52 breeding pairs in the UK, 25 year trend -stable
3) 29 – 652 pairs breeding in the Uk, a decrease of 95% over the past 23 years.
4) 992 breeding pairs in the UK. Increase of 108% over the past 25 years.
5) a) 40 breeding pairs in the UK – strong increase of 1446% over the past 25 years
5) b) 29 breeding pairs in the UK, strong decrease of -61% over the past 25 years
6) 78 breeding pairs in the UK, an increase of 267% over the past 25 years
7) 1,560 breeding pairs, up nearly 6,000% in the past 25 years.
8) 242 breeding pairs, up 207% over the past 25 years
9) 575 breeding pairs, a decrease of 29% over the past 12 years. Likely to disappear over managed grouse moors.
10) 1000 breeding pairs, no trend data available. Certainly our rarest member of this family.
11). 4 breeding pairs, a decrease of 44% over the past 25 years
12) 2750 breeding pairs, but down by 82% over the past 25 years
13) 673 breeding pairs, an increase of 82% over the past 25 years
14) 65 breeding pairs, numbers stable.
15) 500+ breeding pairs in the UK, no trend available.