Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis
Breeding distribution change
Common resident, and passage/winter from Iceland/north Europe
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
Atlas species lists
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More Meadow Pipit maps
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More maps for this atlas
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
71
8%
Present to breeding
21
2%
Absent to breeding
22
2%
No change
Status
Nos tetrads
Present in both
35
4%
Breeding in both
78
9%
Losses and declines
Status
Nos tetrads
Present to absent
88
10%
Breeding to present
38
4%
Breeding to absent
52
6%
Meadow Pipits breed from southeast Greenland to the western finge of Siberia and from Iceland and Fenno-Scandia south to central France, the Alps and Ukraine. Northern and eastern European populations migrate to winter in an area from Britain, Denmark and western Germany to the Mediterranean region, parts of the Middle East and Turkey.
In Britain in winter, part of the breeding population migrates to Iberia, but meantime numbers remaining in Britain are swollen by migrants from further north. They are then found virtually everywhere except in the very highest parts of Scotland and northern England. In the breeding season, when many will have departed to their breeding grounds farther north, to have been only partly replaced by British breeders returning from Iberia, they are most abundant in the uplands of Wales, northern England and Scotland, but are only patchily distributed in the southern English lowlands. Bird Altas 2007-2010 recorded only a 2% range reduction since the 1968-72 Breeding Atlas.
In Wiltshire 19th and 20th century records show them to have been very abundant and a common breeder, mostly on the upland downs and more irregularly on rough lowland sites. Birds of Wiltshire recorded them in 312 tetrads in summer, with breeding in 168 of them. WTA2 recorded them in only 265 tetrad with breeding in 121. By contrast, Birds of Wiltshire calculated that they were present in winter in 44% of tetrads (based on a structured sample) whereas WTA2 found them present in 58%.
. 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.