Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Wild bird populations in the UK
The UK’s official wild bird statistics, including annual abundance indices for water and wetland bird groups from 1975 and for wintering waterbirds from the 1975/76 survey year. Compiled by Defra with the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology and JNCC from the Breeding Bird Survey, the Common Birds Census and the Wetland Bird Survey.
Rights
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
- Commercial reuse
- Yes
- Redistribution
- Yes
- Derivative use
- Yes
- Attribution required
- YesContains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Terms last checked
- 27 August 2026
Access and coverage
- Publisher
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Geographic coverage
- United Kingdom and England
- Temporal coverage
- 1970 onwards
- Resolution
- Country, annual index
- Update frequency
- annual
- Formats
- ods
- Bulk download
- Available
- Registration required
- No
- Cost to Hydrionis
- Free
- Domains
- ecosystem
What Hydrionis holds from this publisher
The publisher’s own coverage is above. This is what Hydrionis has actually taken from it, at the subjects it measures — gauges, boreholes, reservoirs or places.
832
Values held
80
Series, each one measurement at one place
2
Subjects measured
1975–2024
Period actually held, not the publisher’s span
What is measured
- Birds of fast flowing water abundance index · index
- Birds of slow and standing water abundance index · index
- Reedbed birds abundance index · index
- Water and wetland birds abundance index · index
- Wet meadow birds abundance index · index
- Wintering wading birds abundance index · index
- Wintering waterbirds abundance index · index
- Wintering wildfowl abundance index · index
How current it is
- Partial record held
- Defra offers more than Hydrionis currently holds. The newest value here covers 2024; the gap is a deliberate limit on what has been collected, not a limit on the source. The publication carries twenty-two indices covering farmland, woodland, upland, seabird and all-species groups as well as water. Hydrionis holds the eight that describe dependence on fresh water and wetland, for the UK and for England. The species-level trend tables in the same workbook give a long-term and short-term percentage change per species rather than an annual series, and are not held. The underlying Wetland Bird Survey counts are not openly licensed and are not held.The publication carries twenty-two indices covering farmland, woodland, upland, seabird and all-species groups as well as water. Hydrionis holds the eight that describe dependence on fresh water and wetland, for the UK and for England. The species-level trend tables in the same workbook give a long-term and short-term percentage change per species rather than an annual series, and are not held. The underlying Wetland Bird Survey counts are not openly licensed and are not held.
Hydrionis products built from it
Where this publisher’s data reaches a reader. Each has its own page, with its licence and how to cite it.