The Rare Breeding Birds Panel

Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2023

Our latest report has been published in the November 2025 issue of British Birds. The 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 in 2023. 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. In addition, records were compiled for 11 rare non-native breeding species.

The report documents two species which bred in the UK for the first time since the 1990s. A pair of Hoopoes fledged three young in Leicestershire & Rutland and a pair of Temminck’s Stints laid a clutch of four eggs in Highland, although the nest was subsequently flooded. There is plenty of good news, with popula­tion increases and range expansion recorded in a range of species colonising from southern Europe, waterbirds, recovering raptors, and northern waders – 15 species reached record totals in 2023. A pair of White-tailed Eagles in Sussex was the first English breeding record in 240 years, and a pair of Ospreys in County Fermanagh were the first to breed on the island of Ireland for more than 200 years. However, some species are struggling, with just 16 pairs of Slavonian Grebe being the lowest ever reported by the RBBP, and evidence of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (bird flu) impacting several species. A summary of the report can be found here, a table of summary statistics is here, and there’s an illustrated video with some key points from the report below (and on our YouTube channel).

All our past reports, right back to 1973, can be found here.

Changes to Panel membership

We are delighted to welcome a new independent member to the Panel – Jenny Weston, who joined in summer 2025. Jenny has worked for the RSPB since 2007, undertaking the reintroduction of Red Kites to Aberdeenshire before becoming an established part of the local conservation team. Her current work for the RSPB is in Global Species Recovery, working as a Senior Species Recovery Officer, working mostly on Steppe Eagle, Vultures, Hen Harriers and UK migratory species.

In her spare time, Jenny is an active member of the North East of Scotland Raptor Study Group, acting as Red Kite coordinator and group secretary since the late 2000’s. As an A permit and ringing trainer she has experience of a wide variety of ringing across the UK and abroad, with focus in recent years on specific projects, especially satellite tracking. Recent projects have included satellite tracking Hen Harriers and White-tailed Eagles, as well as using camera traps and colour rings to understand more about the habitat requirements of corncrakes on Coll.

As well as welcoming Jenny, we marked the retirement of Dr Ian Francis from the RBBP at our meeting in Northumberland in November 2025.  Ian joined the Panel in late 2000, and so had very nearly served 25 years; he was our second-longest serving member ever. He has brought great experience and insight to our work over this time, drawing on his background in conservation with the RSPB, his immense experience in fieldwork on a wide range of species and habitats, his expertise as a communicator, and his knowledge of the ornithological and biological recording networks (amongst many other things).

Ian has led on important work areas for the RBBP like developing our recording standards and communication strategies, and has always challenged us to do better in many ways. He has done so with warmth and good humour, has been a pleasure to work alongside, and will be much missed by all the Panel. However, we know that he will remain active in many areas of ornithology and conservation, and we will continue to hear from him and receive his rare breeding bird records!

Non-native breeding birds in the UK, 2015-20

Our latest report on non-native breeding birds was published in British Birds at the beginning of September. Non-native breeding birds in the UK, 2015-20 documents the 22 rare breeding species (with fewer than 300 pairs) to have bred, or attempted to breed, in the UK over that six year period, as well as providing a summary on the status of the eight commoner non-native breeders.

The report shows that only one rare non-native species, Red-crested Pochard, is increasing while eight are decreasing. There are, however, two species reported for the first time, with Cackling Goose and Lanner Falcon breeding in hybrid pairs with Barnacle Goose and Peregrine Falcon respectively. A summary of the report can be found in the blog here.

UPDATE (Sept ’24): this report is now available to read and download here.

Recent RBBP papers

As part of our activities to mark the 50th anniversary of the RBBP’s formation as an independent body with the responsibility for monitoring the UK’s rarest breeding birds, the Panel has published two review papers in the journals British Birds and British Wildlife. These look back over the five decades since 1973 at how both the work of the Panel, and the populations of rare breeding bird species that we monitor, have changed, as well as summarising how we operate nowadays.

The paper in British Birds, The Rare Breeding Birds Panel: five decades of monitoring the UK’s rare breeding birds (Stroud et al. 2023) is now available open access, and can be read here (and the supplementary online material is here). It focusses on the development of the Panel’s work, describing how this has evolved in step with the technology that supports the collection, sharing and use of data. It stresses how the birdwatching community plays a crucial part in the ability of the organisation to run effectively, set against the background of major change in the numbers and distribution of our rarest nesting birds.

The paper in British Wildlife, Monitoring five decades of change in the UK’s rarest breeding birds through citizen science: the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, (Eaton et al. 2023) is now also available to read on our website here. The paper complements the British Birds paper by focusing more on the changes in bird populations as shown by RBBP data collected since 1973, as well as the value of this data for bird conservation and research.

Thanks to British Birds (www.britishbirds.co.uk) and British Wildlife (www.britishwildlife.com) for publishing these papers and allowing us to share them open access.

The RBBP at 50

As the RBBP began collating data and reporting on the status of the UK’s rare breeding birds in 1973, we are celebrating our 50th birthday in 2023. There will be a range of publications and website developments through the year to mark the occasion. We also hosted a free online conference on the evenings of 15th and 16th March, with 12 great presentations covering a wide range of topics related to the RBBP, the work we do, and the UK’s rare breeding birds. The event was much enjoyed by the 298 attendees. Huge thanks to our fantastic guest speakers! An account of the conference, with RECORDINGS OF ALL THE TALKS so you can catch up on anything you missed, or even rewatch your favourites, is now available.

In addition, we have published papers reviewing our first 50 years of monitoring rare breeding birds, and what it has shown us, in British Birds and British Wildlife – we will share them here in due course. In September we will publish our latest report on rare non-native breeding birds, covering the period 2015-20, and then our annual report on native rare breeding birds (in 2021) will be out in November. And Panel Archivist Mark Holling has published papers on the breeding of Great Grey Shrike, Spotted Sandpiper, Serin and Bee-eater (see blogs on these here).

UPDATE: our previous annual report, Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2022, published in British Birds in November 2024, is now freely available for download here. All previous reports, back to 1973, can be found here.