Indicators of wild bird populations

Wild Bird Indicators

The Headline indicators for sustainable development in the UK and the Farmland bird Public Service Agreement (PSA) indicator for England have been updated to include 2005 data. The England Biodiversity Strategy indicators and the wild bird indicators for the English regions will be updated in due course.

We present here a number of Wild Bird indicators at the UK level, England and the constituent Government Office Regions of England based on populations trends for primarily common and widespread birds. These indicators cover a range of long-term and short-term time periods and consist of indicators composed of all-species and also habitat breakdowns (such as farmland and woodland habitats). They are produced by the BTO, in collaboration with the RSPB for DEFRA, and are largely based on data from the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and the BTO’s Common Bird Census (CBC).

Populations of common birds are ideal for the purposes of producing indicators; they are thought to be a good indicator of the state of the environment as they occupy a wide range of habitats, tend to be near the top of the food chain and long-term data are readily available to assess population changes.

All these indicators are produced in the same manner; the indicator value for each year is the geometric mean of the constituent species’ trends. Within this multi-species index, each species is given equal weighting, regardless of population size or conservation status. Individual species populations within the index may be increasing or decreasing, irrespective of the overall indicator trends. For further details on trend information, see Wider Countryside Report.

These indicators are used to monitor the state of the environment and wider countryside and as such the Government has a Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to reverse the long-term decline in the number of farmland birds and the Forestry Commission has a target to reverse the long-term decline in the number of woodland birds. Both targets are for 2020 and are measured annually against underlying bird population trends.

Headline indicators for sustainable development in the UK

These are part of the sustainable development commitment and form just one of the quality of life indicators - a Sustainable Development Framework Indicator. An all-species index along with farmland and woodland indices are produced for the UK, starting in 1970 and produced up to 2005. >more

Farmland bird PSA indicator for England

This farmland bird indicator in used by the Government to monitor the progress of their Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to reverse the long-term decline in the numbers of farmland birds by 2020. The index is produced for England, starting in 1966, and produced up to 2005. >more

England Biodiversity Strategy Indicators

Five landscape themes have been produced in the England Biodiversity Strategy Indicators (Farmland, Woodland, Wetland, Urban and Coastal) along with an all species indicator. The indicators span different time scales of between 10 and 34 years depending on data availability, with all updated to 2004. >more

Wild Bird Indicators for the English Regions

The regional versions of the wild bird indicators cover the period of 1994-2004 and are calculated for the nine Government Office Regions, North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, South East, South West and London. They are based on a similar approach to that used to produce the UK Sustainable Development Strategy indicators, with separate indices for all native bird species, for farmland species and woodland species. >more

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