Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2017

In December 2019 our annual report, presenting the definitive summary for the 2017 breeding season, was published in British Birds – see the cover image to the left. For the first time ever, data were received directly from all recording areas, making this review even more definitive.

A pair of Night Herons in Somerset was the first ever confirmed breeding in the UK; Cattle Egrets nested at four sites; there were six pairs of Black-winged Stilts (a new record total); and the highest-ever totals for Eurasian Spoonbill (29 pairs), Eurasian Bittern (191 booming males and/or nests found) and Little Egret (1,523 pairs) were reported. Three pairs of European Bee-eaters nested in Nottinghamshire, although poor weather when the young were in the nest eventually led to all the chicks being deserted. The phenomenon of species with a more southerly European distribution colonising the UK is explored further in the report in a special piece penned by Malcolm Ausden. A total of 11 rare occasional and potential breeding species were recorded exhibiting breeding behaviour, pointing to the possibility of further colonisation in the future. Less good news though were the reports of the lowest ever totals of Slavonian Grebes (18 pairs) and the lowest totals since the 1980s of both Montagu’s Harrier (5 pairs) and Spotted Crakes (8 calling males). See here for a list of all the rare breeding birds recorded in 2017 together with the numbers of pairs and trends for each species.