§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the estimated population was of(a) corncrakes, (b) woodlarks, (c) nightjars, (d) skylarks, (e) curlews, (f) snipe, (g) redshanks and (h) yellowhammers in Great Britain in 1990; and what the current estimate of the population is. [158011]
§ Mr. BradshawCurlew, snipe and redshank are amber-listed. All the rest are red-listed. Red list species are those that are Globally Threatened according to IUCN criteria; those whose population or range has declined rapidly in recent years; and those that have declined historically and not shown a substantial recent recovery. Amber list species are those with an unfavourable conservation status in Europe, those whose population or range has declined moderately in recent years; those whose population has declined historically but made a substantial recent recovery; rare breeders; and those with internationally important or localised populations. Species that fulfil none of the criteria are green-listed.
The estimation of the various bird populations is given as follows. 514W
NCC 1990/1988–91 atlas1 Apep 22 Corncrake 575 589 Snipe 30,000 30,000 Curlew 35,500 No new national estimate available Redshank 32,500 No new national estimate available Nightjar 2,000 3,400 Woodlark 220 1,426–1,552 Skylark 2,000,000 1,700,000 Yellowhammer 1,200,000 790,000 1 Figures from Stroud, D. A., Pienkowski, M. W. and Mudge, G. P. (1990). "Protecting internationally important bird sites: a review of the network of EC Special Protection Areas in Great Britain". Nature Conservancy Council, Peterborough. 230 pp except for skylark and yellowhammer which are taken from Gibbons, D. W., Reid, J. B. and Chapman, R. A. 1993. "The new atlas of breeding birds in Britain and Ireland: 1988–1991". T. and A. D. Poyser, London. 2 Figures from working draft of the Avian Population Estimates Panel.