Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe
Breeding distribution change
Scarce but regular migrant from Britain/Iceland/Greenland to Africa, now rare nester
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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 Wheatear 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
135
15%
Present to breeding
1
<1%
Absent to breeding
2
<1%
No change
Status
Nos tetrads
Present in both
22
2%
Breeding in both
0
0%
Losses and declines
Status
Nos tetrads
Present to absent
37
4%
Breeding to present
1
<1%
Breeding to absent
0
0%
Wheatears have an almost circumpolar summer range, breeding from northeast Canada through Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes to much of Europe from the Mediterranean to Fenno-Scandia, and through central and northern Asia, across Siberia and via the Bering Strait into Alaska and northwest Canada. They winter in sub-Saharan Africa in a broad swathe from Mauritania and Senegal to Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
In Britain Wheatears are summer visitors to the northern and western coasts and uplands from the Northern Isles of Scotland, down through Wales to the southwest peninsula of England. Bird Atlas 2007-2011 recorded a 14% contraction in their breeding season range since the 1968-72 Breeding Atlas. They also occur as passage migrants virtually everywhere outside of major conurbations.
In Wiltshire, as in most of southern England, breeding Wheatear numbers have fallen as a result of changes to land use, particularly widespread conversion of pastoral land to arable farming. In the 19th century the species was considered to be common. Numbers dipped as a result of land use intensification in the early years of the 20th century, then rose again in the period of farming depression between the two world wars, before finally falling as more land was devoted to growing food crops during and after the second world war. The figures from the regular atlases show the pattern of decline: the 1968-72 Breeding Atlas recorded Wheatears present in 18 of Wiltshire's 33 ten-km squares, with breeding in six; the 1988-91 Breeding Atlas had them present in ten squares with breeding in three; Birds of Wiltshire found them in 61 tetrads, all spring migrants on passage except for one breeding pair; in WTA2 there were records from 161 tetrads but again in only one of them was breeding confirmed.
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.