Map explanation

This map shows where changes occurred in the breeding season distribution of the species in Wiltshire between 1995-2000 and 2007-2012, as revealed by the fieldwork for Birds of Wiltshire (Wiltshire Ornithological Society 2007) and the shared fieldwork for Bird Atlas 2007-2011 (BTO 2013) and for Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2007-2012.

Gains and improvements

Status

Nos tetrads


Absent to present

12

1%


Present to breeding

188

21%


Absent to breeding

14

2%


No change

Status

Nos tetrads


Present in both

120

13%


Breeding in both

390

43%


Losses and declines

Status

Nos tetrads


Present to absent

3

<1%


Breeding to present

186

20%


Breeding to absent

2

<1%


Carrion Crows of the nominate race C. c. corone are common in Wales and England, south and east Scotland, and in mainland Europe from Iberia east to the River Elbe in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. A related race, C. c .orientalis, occurs in Asia, from Iran to China, Japan and Kamchatka.

            In Britain Carrion Crows were long treated as pests and persecuted, particularly by gamekeepers. This persecution lessened in the late 20th century: the Common Bird Census recorded a population increase of 95% between 1968 and the end of the century, helped by improved nesting success and earlier egg-laying resulting from milder winters and earlier springs.

            In Wiltshire recorders paid little attention to them in the 19th and 20th centuries beyond commenting that, despite human persecution, they were common and well distributed. The 1968-72 and 1988-91 Breeding Atlases and the 1981-84 Winter Atlas all recorded them in all the forty-six 10km squares wholly or partly in Wiltshire. Birds of Wiltshire recorded them in 889 tetrads, with breeding in 578. WTA2 showed a marginal increase, with breeding recorded in 592 of the 910 tetrads where they were present.

 

References

The following references are used throughout these species accounts, in the abbreviated form given in quotation marks:

“1968-72 Breeding Atlas” – Sharrack, J.T.R. 1976: The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser

“1981-84 Winter Atlas” – Lack, P.C. 1986: The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser

1988-91 Breeding Atlas” – Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. 1993: The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-91. T. & A. Poyser

Birds of Wiltshire” – Ferguson-Lees, I.J. et al. 2007 : Birds of Wiltshire, published by the tetrad atlas group of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society after mapping fieldwork 1995-2000. Wiltshire Ornithological Society.

“Bird Atlas 2007-2011” – Balmer, D.E., Gillings, S., Caffrey, B.J., Swann, R.L., Downie, I.S. and Fuller, R.J. 2013: Bird Atlas 2007-2011: the Breeding and Wintering Birds of Britain and Ireland

WTA2” – ("Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2 ") the present electronic publication, bringing together the Wiltshire data from “Birds of Wiltshire” and “Bird Atlas 2007-11”, together with data from further fieldwork carried out in 2011 and 2012.

"Hobby" - the annual bird report of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society.