The 2023 report of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP) was published in British Birds in November 2025 (Eaton et al. 2025) and can be obtained by subscription at www.britishbirds.co.uk; a pdf of the report will be available at www.rbbp.org.uk in due course.
This is the 50th report published by the RBBP – we have now reported on 51 breeding seasons (with one report covering two years, 2003 and 2004). For those species that have been covered since the first report, for 1973, we can now report on change over the 50-year period from 1973 to 2023.
The 2023 report documents the status of the 104 species and subspecies of rare and scarce native birds that were recorded breeding, or showing signs of breeding, in the UK. Population totals are given for each species in the report, alongside a breakdown in records by country and recording area, and where possible updated trends are given. A table summarising species’ totals and trends can be found here. In addition, records were compiled for 11 rare non-native breeding species.
The report was enabled by the collation of over 11,500 individual records, which, once duplicate records were identified, provided just under 7,800 unique records. The most important sources of data are the detailed submissions compiled by the UK’s county and regional bird recorders. Of course, these recorders, and in turn the RBBP, are highly dependent on observers submitting records in the first place. It is vital that birders across the UK continue to make their sightings available, not least for the value these records have for conservation, as outlined in this report. Other than data submitted by county bird recorders, our important data sources include returns from Schedule 1 licence holders, the BTO/JNCC Nest Record Scheme, raptor study groups, annual species’ monitoring, periodic national surveys, and counts from RSPB reserves.
There were no new species or races reported this year. Rather, the most eye-catching records are of two species returning to breed after many years of absence. Temminck’s Stints have been returning to a site in Highland since 2021, and although it seems likely they have attempted to breed previously, it was not until 2023 that this was confirmed, with a nest found under licence; this was the first confirmed UK breeding record since 1997. Unfortunately, the nest was later washed out by rising water levels.
Eurasian Hoopoes, Carl Baggott
While there had been two years of forewarning for the return of Temminck’s Stint, the successful breeding of a pair of Eurasian Hoopoes that fledged three young in Leicestershire & Rutland came out of the blue, although one of the largest ever spring influxes of this species clearly set the stage for the first confirmed breeding since 1996. Another southern European species, European Bee-eater, is becoming an almost expected breeder in England; in 2023 it bred at two sites for the first time, albeit unsuccessfully. After decades of regular breeding in the UK, the absence of breeding Yellow-legged Gulls since 2019 has been a surprise; they returned in 2023 with one pair and, as is often the case, an adult in a mixed pairing (in this instance with a Herring Gull).
In addition to these returning or colonising species, 15 species reached record totals in 2023. Three are in the UK as a result of reintroduction projects: Great Bustard, White Stork and White-tailed Eagle The Scottish population of White-tailed Eagles, which originated from a reintroduction project starting in 1975, reached 156 pairs, but arguably the more notable record in 2023 was the first confirmed (and successful) breeding in England in 240 years; a pair, both of which were released in 2020, fledged one offspring in Sussex. Other raptor species continue to flourish; the breeding population of Marsh Harriers exceeded 500 pairs – an abundance not known in the UK since the early 19th century, or possibly even earlier. The sixth national survey of Hen Harrier showed a 20% increase since the previous survey in 2016, over which time the English population has risen from four to 50 pairs. A pair of Ospreys that bred in Co Fermanagh were the first on the isle of Ireland for over 200 years.
Great White Egret, Ron MacDonald
Five species of large wading birds reached record totals: Common Crane, Eurasian Spoonbill, Eurasian Bittern, Great White Egret and Little Egret. Many of these species are benefitting from conservation action, either from projects focused narrowly on their requirements, or action more generally to create, restore and maintain high-quality wetland habitats, often on a large scale, across the UK. Northern Shoveler, Common Pochard and Black-necked Grebe also reached new peaks in 2023, which might at least in part be a response to improved wetland habitat provision. Range shifts in response to climate change may also be a factor driving increases in some of these species, and that seems very likely in the ongoing increases in Black-winged Stilt and Mediterranean Gull. There were 3,482 pairs of Mediterranean Gulls breeding in the UK in 2023; this is the highest total for any species ever reported in an RBBP report, and this species is now a candidate to be removed from our list of rare breeding birds.
We readily attribute breeding population increases in species with breeding ranges centred to the south of the UK to the predicted impacts of climate change. However, such predictions also lead us to expect declines and eventual extinctions for many of the species for which the UK lies on the southern edge of their breeding ranges. This is not always the case, and perhaps one of the most surprising patterns shown by RBBP data over the last decade has been the increase in a number of wader species with breeding distributions across high latitudes in the Arctic, Fennoscandia and Siberia. The return of Temminck’s Stint has already been noted. Numbers of Wood Sandpipers rose by 61% between 2022 and 2023, a continuation of a trend which has seen numbers reported triple over the last decade. While not quite matching record totals both species reached in 2021, numbers of Red-necked Phalarope and Green Sandpiper remained high in 2023.
Slavonian Grebe, Richard Tyler
Not all northern species are flourishing, however. The number of pairs of Slavonian Grebe fell yet again, to 16 pairs, the lowest total since RBBP reporting began in 1973. Six pairs of Redwings was also the lowest total we have reported, albeit one matched in 2001 and 2006. There were no confirmed breeding pairs of Fieldfare or Red-backed Shrike in 2023.
Further south, for the third year in a row there was no confirmed breeding by Montagu’s Harriers, and no pairs reported. The three-year gap since the last confirmed breeding in 2019 is probably the longest absence of this species since the early twentieth century. The RBBP’s coverage of two struggling species, European Turtle Dove and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, is not sufficiently robust to track population changes, although both were reported at their lowest-ever levels in 2023. RBBP data are, however, particularly valuable for reporting on range change; both species have suffered considerable range contraction since they were added to our species list, with European Turtle Dove now being reported from 18 counties (26 in 2018), and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker from 35 counties (47 in 2010).
Among the more unusual records were a Little Crake in Cambridgeshire (our third record from that county in six years). The American Black Tern returned to Northumberland, as did a Broad-billed Sandpiper to Shetland. A Greater Short-toed Lark summering in Pembrokeshire means this species features in an RBBP report for only the second time.
In last year’s report we discussed the impact of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI; bird flu) of the strain H5N1 on rare breeding birds in 2022; outbreaks of the virus reoccurred in wild birds in 2023. The virus was again conspicuously present amongst breeding seabirds, although to some extent the species affected had changed with, for example, widespread reports of severe mortality amongst Black-headed Gulls and in Mediterranean Gulls breeding within Black-headed Gull colonies with, for example, at least 40 adult and 50 young Mediterranean Gulls dying at a colony in Lancashire & North Merseyside.
Mediterranean Gull, Mark Eaton
Numbers of Roseate Terns at Coquet Island fell from 154 pairs in 2022 to 118 pairs in 2023, which can be attributed to the mortality of 90 adults (as well as 170 chicks) from HPAI the previous year. Only four adults were known to have died in 2023, suggesting that there may have been some build-up of immunity, although 73 chicks died.
Our data for Peregrine in 2023 show the largest between-year decline we have ever reported. This decline was widespread, across all four countries, with declines recorded in 66 counties; although there is no causal evidence, a decline due to HPAI mortality is perhaps the most plausible explanation for this change.
As always, we wish to thank all those who support the work of the RBBP particularly those such as county bird recorders who collate and submit data to us (please see our acknowledgements for further details), and the observers who make the thousands of records of rare breeding birds that contribute to our reports.
Dr Mark Eaton
Secretary, Rare Breeding Birds Panel, 4th November 2025.