Species Action Plan

The linnet is a common and widespread species across the UK countryside where it uses weedy fields, hedgerows, gorse thickets, heathland and scrub (particularly near the coast). However, based on the Common Bird Census, numbers declined by 56% on farmland between 1968 and 1991. Their UK range declined only slightly over this period but was most marked in Northern Ireland. The UK population was estimated at 540,000 territories in the New Breeding Atlas (1988-91). It is widespread and common in much of Europe, though declining in some areas, particularly The Netherlands and Finland. A variable proportion of the UK breeding population winters in Spain and western France; the birds remaining in the UK are joined by breeding birds from northern Europe.

The linnet is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 and EC Birds Directive, and is listed on Appendix II of the Bern Convention.

The recent decline of the linnet has occurred at the same time as decreases in the numbers and/or range of other farmland birds which share its diet of grass and wildflower seeds, and some cereal grains. Linnets are more dependent than other seed-eaters on wildflower seeds during the breeding season, when the chicks are also fed on seeds rather than insects. It is likely that the decline in linnets may be due to changes in agricultural practice, both in the UK and in their wintering range in south-west Europe. These include the increased use of herbicides and fertilisers, the switch from spring-sown to autumn-sown crops and the consequent loss of winter stubble fields, and the general reduction in farmland habitat diversity due to the loss of mixed farming and increased specialisation.

Changes in management of pastoral areas may also have caused declines through the increased use of fertilisers, re-seeding of species-rich fields, more intensive grazing, early cutting for silage and the loss of the small proportion of arable fields that were typically present on such farms.

The removal of hedges, gorse thickets and other unmanaged scrub, combined with the increased frequency and severity of hedge trimming and heavy grazing in some areas, will have led to losses of suitable nesting habitat.

Until recently, the linnet was not regarded as a high priority species for conservation action but it is likely to have benefited, incidentally, at a small number of individual sites from initiatives for other species associated with heathland and scrub habitats, particularly in coastal situations. A good example is the acquisition and management of heathland, including the establishment and management of gorse for Dartford warblers.

Large stretches of rocky coast have been brought under appropriate conservation management, which involves intensive land use on cliff-tops, particularly by the National Trust under `Enterprise Neptune`.

The provision of rotational set-aside will have benefited the species, although this has been significantly reduced in area in recent years. New prescriptions encouraging the growing of spring cereals and retention of winter stubbles in the South Downs ESA, and the pilot Arable Stewardship Scheme, should also benefit the linnet.

Linnets may also have benefited from the provision of game cover crops and the young stages of conifer plantations.

Andy Evans, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

The following LBAPs are working on Carduelis cannabina:

Originally published in: UK Biodiversity Group Tranche 2 Action Plans - Volume I: Vertebrates and vascular plants (June 1998, Tranche 2, Vol I, p57)

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