Wild Bird Indicators for the English Regions

On March 16th 2006 Defra released updated regional wild bird indicators for England. These are produced by the BTO, in collaboration with the RSPB and are largely based on data from the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS).

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.

Due to the relatively short time period covered by the regional indicators caution must be used in their interpretation. Large declines in farmland and woodland birds, which occurred between the mid 1970s and early 1990s, have largely halted, and populations have stabilised at a much lower level than in 1970.

There appears to be a roughly north-south pattern in the changes in bird populations between 1994 and 2004. However, drawing comparisons between regions should be treated with caution as geographical variations in the number of species recorded in the BBS mean that each regional indicator covers a slightly different subset of the species covered by the equivalent England indicator.

Figure 1. Percentage change in wild bird indicators by region

The farmland bird index increased by 15% in the North West, decreased by 14% in the West Midlands and 12% in the South East, whilst changing less than 10% in the other regions.

Figure 2. Farmland bird indicators for the North West and the South East compared to the England indicator

The woodland bird index increased by 26% in the North West, 17% in the East Midlands, and 15% in Yorkshire and Humberside, and decreased by 12% in the South East, whilst changing less than 10% in the other regions.

Figure 3. Woodland bird indicators for the North West and South East regions compared to the England indicator

The all species index increased by 23% in the North West, 21% in Yorkshire and Humberside, 15% in the North East and 12% in the East Midlands, whilst changing less than 10% in the other regions.

The London region indicator, included in the Appendix, uses a relatively large proportion of data from the area surrounding London and so interpretation of the trends requires caution. Between 1994 and 2004 the all species and farmland indices showed no significant change for the London region, while the woodland bird index increased by 12%.

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