The long-standing partnership between the statutory conservation agencies and BTO supports many of the bird surveillance schemes currently organised in Britain and Northern Ireland.  This report gives an overview of some key results from the second year of the current BTO/JNCC Partnership and it is intended to help you locate more detailed information should you wish to do so.

 

The work of the Partnership is only possible because of the dedication and hard work of thousands of volunteers who freely give their time and expertise to count birds throughout Britain and Northern Ireland. The BTO and JNCC are greatly indebted to all those who contribute in this way to all the surveys and investigations organised by the Partnership and we would like to record here our sincere thanks for all these good efforts.

 

At the centre of the Partnership is a suite of long-term surveillance schemes that assess annually the abundance of birds in Britain and Northern Ireland. Together with two additional schemes, funded also by other partners (the RSPB for the Breeding Bird Survey and the RSPB and WWT for the Wetland Bird Survey), this surveillance covers the great majority of breeding and wintering birds with the exception of very scarce species.

 

The results from different schemes are combined in various ways to give a more complete picture of how bird populations are changing and whether recruitment, survival or movement are responsible for the patterns observed. The web pages for each species under the heading of Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside Report (www.bto.org/birdtrends) give summaries of their trends and some interpretations of the probable causes.

 

The work of the BTO/JNCC Partnership is also the basis for much additional surveying and research funded by other organisations, including Defra and other agencies.  This further work seeks to investigate some species in more detail and also to discover more about the reasons for the changes observed. Thus, the Partnership is the foundation for an extensive body of research that examines the responses of birds to changing environmental conditions and this enables predictions to be made on the consequences of alternative scenarios for the future of our birds.

 

The work of the Partnership is reported extensively in technical peer-reviewed scientific journals, other periodicals, books and increasingly via web pages that can be readily accessed via the Internet (www.bto.org). This report includes a list of publications and other outputs from the Partnership to facilitate access to detailed information, analyses and interpretations.

 

We hope that you find this report informative and a useful link to more detailed and extensive information about changes in bird numbers and some of the causes responsible.  If you would like to know more, please explore the BTO and JNCC websites and then follow the links to the different subject areas.