High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Thursday, March 29, 2012
Status of Wild Bird Populations
Birds can respond relatively quickly to variations in habitat quality, through changes in breeding output, survival or dispersal. Since most bird species are relatively easy to identify and count, geographically widespread, abundant and diurnal, birds are often used as indicators of environmental change. The Scottish Government has established a National Indicator to increase the index of abundance of terrestrial breeding birds in Scotland against a 2006 base year. This is used as a proxy measure of biodiversity, as biodiversity cannot be measured by a single indicator. The graph shows the indices for terrestrial breeding birds, breeding seabirds and waterbirds.
The number of wintering waterbirds rose between the mid 1980s and mid 1990s, reaching a peak in 1995. Since then there has been a steady decline, with the abundance falling 15% between 1995 and 2008. Seabird abundance was in decline between 1991 and 2004, but has since stabilised. In 2010, the abundance of seabirds was 45% lower than the 1988 peak. The abundance of terrestrial breeding birds has shown a long term increase of 15% between 1994 and 2010; however, between 2008 and 2010 the abundance of terrestrial breeding birds decreased by 14%.
View chart data
Source: British Trust for Ornithology/Royal Society for Protection of Birds/Joint Nature Conservation Committee/Wildfowl and Wetland Trust
(1) The population of wintering waterbirds is measured in the winter beginning in the year indicated. i.e 2003 indicates populations measured from approximately September 2003 - March 2004.
(2) Re-assessment of the accuracy of abundance trends has led to a reduction in the species composition of that indicator (previously 19 species for the 2008 index). It now comprises 12 species.
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