Garden Warbler Sylvia borin
Breeding distribution change
Common summer visitor and passage migrant, breeds Europe, winters Africa
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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 Garden Warbler 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
123
13%
Present to breeding
36
4%
Absent to breeding
26
3%
No change
Status
Nos tetrads
Present in both
95
10%
Breeding in both
27
3%
Losses and declines
Status
Nos tetrads
Present to absent
130
14%
Breeding to present
75
8%
Breeding to absent
70
8%
Garden Warblers breed from Iberia, France, Italy and Greece north via the British Isles to northern Fenno-Scandia and east to Siberia, and also in northern Turkey, through the Caucasus, to Iran. They winter in sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal east to Kenya and south to Angola and South Africa.
In Britain they are widely distributed in summer throughout England and Wales. Once scarce north of a line from the Mersey to the Humber, in recent years they have been expanding northwards and are now patchily distributed in northern England and lowland areas of Scotland. Bird Atlas 2007-2011 recorded a 12% expansion of range since the 1968-72 Breeding Atlas. Overall numbers remained reasonably stable, apart from a temporary dip in numbers in the 1970s, thought to have been caused by drought in the Sahel, until the 1990s since when there has been a marked decline.
In Wiltshire they were considered to be "not uncommon" throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century but reports began to sound a more pessimistic note towards the end of the latter century: BBS survey reports showed a 16% fall in numbers between 1995 and 2010; Birds of Wiltshire recorded their presence in 433 tetrads, with breeding confirmed or probable in 172 of them; WTA2 recorded them in 382 tetrads, with breeding only in 89.
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: The Breeding and Wintering Birds of Britain and Ireland. BTO Books.
“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.