Abstract

The rapid decline of the Willow Tit Poecile montanus in the UK has made it a conservation priority species. This study, which combines recent data gathered using established survey methodology over several years from the Dearne Valley, Yorkshire, shows a landscape-scale extinction of the local breeding population. What is most striking is that, just eight years ago, this post-industrial area of former coal mining was a stronghold for the species.IntroductionThe Willow Tit Poecile montanus has the unenviable claim of being the UK’s most rapidly declining non-migratory species, with a current breeding population of around 5,700 pairs estimated from the national Willow Tit surveys of 2019 and 2021 (Wotton et al. in prep.). It is the subject of research to try to understand the causes behind the decline and is the focus of conservation programmes aimed at trying to halt the decline and potentially reverse it, for example Back from the Brink 2017–21. Despite this effort, the species was moved from the Amber list to the Red list in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (Stanbury et al. 2021) The study area – a post-industrial landscape in the Dearne Valley Nature Improvement Area (NIA), Yorkshire – was surveyed in 2015, when 70 Willow Tit breeding territories were identified (Carr & Lunn 2017). Here, we document the results of repeat surveys using the same routes and observers in 2018, 2019, 2020 (limited coverage), 2021 and 2023, and demonstrate the rapid local extinction of the species.