Data can be provided as either Monthly Counts or a Tabulated Five-year Synopsis, for further details please refer to the guidance notes here.

The following tables are an example of a Tabulated five-year synopsis output, which are provided in htm, pdf and rtf formats. The example provided here is shown as an htm output. Please note that the tables shown here have been cropped. Actual data outputs will provide data for all species recorded on the selected site during the selected years.

Table 1

Table 2

Average counts calculated across the included years are provided for each species. The number of complete/incomplete counts during the five years are given in parentheses.

Table 3

The highest counts made over the included years are given for each. The number of complete/incomplete counts can be found from Table 2.

Table 4a - 4c

Tables 4a, 4b and 4c provide the peak seasonal count of each species in each of the included years, for Spring, Autumn and Winter respectively. The month of the peak is given in each case. Where tabulated values are enclosed in parentheses this indicates they are based on incomplete counts.

Table 4a: Spring (April to June inclusive to describe spring passage).

Table 4b: Autumn (July to October inclusive to describe autumn passage).

Table 4c: Winter (November to March inclusive to describe the wintering population).

Table 5

Average peak season counts as tabulated in 4a-4c are compared to qualifying levels used to assess whether or not a site holds nationally or internationally important numbers of a given species. These qualifying levels are published in the Wetland Bird Survey Annual Report - Wildfowl and Wader Counts, published by BTO, WWT, RSPB & JNCC, and are updated at approximately nine-year intervals.

The tabulated value is the percent of the relevant qualifying level that the mean peak count for the site represents. For some species (e.g. Ringed Plover) different qualifying levels are used for assessment of wintering and passage (spring & autumn) populations. For species for which qualifying levels have not been set (e.g. Common Sandpiper) N/A replaces the estimate of importance in the table.

Where tabulated values are enclosed in parentheses this indicates that 1% of the British wintering population (the normal qualifying level criterion for British National importance) is less than 50 birds. In such cases 50 is used as the minimum qualifying level for British national importance.