The Breeding Bird Survey of the United Kingdom

Abstract

Motivation

Information on species' population trends is essential to assess species' conservation status, make informed environmental decisions and ultimately reduce biodiversity loss. Robust population trends require a long-term monitoring programme, often using citizen scientists, that ideally generates representative and unbiased data from the study area. Here we present the dataset of the Breeding Bird Survey, the main scheme for monitoring the population changes of common and widespread breeding birds in the United Kingdom, which achieves this through a randomised sampling scheme and defined field methodology. We also describe the modelling approach used to calculate the population trends, which are the main output of the survey.

Main Types of Variable Contained

The main published dataset contains 7,070,577 records detailing counts of 217 bird species in 7010 grid cells over 30 years. Data for 78 species that are currently regarded as too sensitive to be released at fine resolution are omitted. As an illustration of the main use of this dataset, we provide population change estimates for 119 bird species.

Spatial Location and Grain

Grid squares (1 × 1 km) are randomly selected using a stratified sampling scheme throughout the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. Data in a grid square are collected along two 1-km-long transects which are subdivided into 200-m-long sections.

Time Period and Grain

Data have been collected every year since 1994, with two major disruptions in 2001 and 2020, when people's movements were nationally restricted. Grid squares are surveyed twice a year during the main breeding season (April to June). Here we present the data collected from 1994 to 2023.

Major Taxa Studied and Level of Measurement

Bird species.

Software Format

Data are supplied as comma-separated text files.