National statistics

Wild bird populations in England

Annual trends in wild bird populations in England.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

Bird populations have long been considered to provide a good indication of the broad state of wildlife in England. This is because they occupy a wide range of habitats and respond to environmental pressures that also operate on other groups of wildlife. In addition there are considerable long-term data on changes in bird populations, which help in the interpretation of shorter term fluctuations in numbers.

The bird population indices have been compiled in conjunction with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

For more statistics about the status of bird populations internationally, please see the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme website.

The datasets associated with this publication can be found here ENV08 - Wild bird populations in England

Defra statistics: environment

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Published 6 December 2012
Last updated 7 November 2023 + show all updates
  1. Release for wild bird trends for 2022 has been released.

  2. Wild bird populations in England published with 2020 data.

  3. Updated for Wintering Waterbirds

  4. Annual update.

  5. New publication for 2019.

  6. Annual release.

  7. Annual update.

  8. Publication and dataset revision and published.

  9. Annual update.

  10. Annual update to statistical release.

  11. 2014 release published

  12. Introductory paper added to the publication

  13. 2012 update

  14. First published.