BTO Research

Professional and Consultancy Services

DISTRIBUTION STUDIES

BTO is renowned for its work on bird distributions and movements.  We have co-ordinated several distributional studies involving our large network of volunteer observers.  Results of these studies are published in book form and the data made available to conservation agencies, for the purposes of site protection and development of regional conservation strategies; engineers, planners, ecologists, academics and amateur researchers.

Four British atlases have been produced by the BTO:

Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. 1993. The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland: 1988-1991. Poyser, London.
Distribution on  10x10km basis (with partial coverage at 2x2 km square level), plus an objective measure of relative abundance in each 10x10km square to provide contour maps of abundance.  Changes in distribution since the production of the first atlas (Sharrock 1976) were also determined.

Sharrock, J.T.R. 1976. The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland (1967-72). Poyser, Berkhamsted.
Distribution (as possible, probably, or confirmed breeding) on a 10x10km square basis.

Lack, P.C. 1986. The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland (1981-84). Poyser, Calton.
Distribution on semi-quantitative basis in 10x10km squares.

Werhham, C.V., Toms, M.P., Marchant, J.H., Clark, J.A.,
Siriwardena, G.M., & Baillie, S.R. (eds) 2002. The Migration Atlas: Movements of the Birds of Britain and Ireland. Poyser, London.
A detailed picture of nearly a century of the results from bird ringing.

In addition, BTO collaborated with SOVON (the Dutch sister organisation to BTO) and the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics to produce a Europe-wide atlas.

Hagemeijer, W.J.M. & Blair, M.J. 1997. The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds. Poyser, London.
Distributional data of breeding birds in 50x50km squares were gathered for the whole of Europe with national estimates of population sizes and trends.

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