The conservation status of the species is given at three levels, national (UK), European and Global.

United Kingdom

The conservation status of 247 regularly occurring birds in the U.K. has been reviewed by the leading governmental and non-governmental conservation organisations (Gregory et al. 2002). This resulted in each species being placed on one of three lists: Red, Amber or Green.

Red List species are those which are: Globally Threatened, whose population or range has declined rapidly in recent years, or that have declined historically and not shown a substantial recent recovery.

Amber List species are those which have an unfavourable conservation status in Europe, whose population or range has declined moderately in recent years or those whose population has declined historically but made a substantial recent recovery. It also includes rare breeders and those for which the U.K. holds internationally important or localised populations.

Species on the Green List fulfil none of the above criteria and are of least conservation concern. For more details on the criteria and how they were applied, please click here. Forty species have been placed on the Red List and 121 on the Amber List. The remaining 86 species are Green listed.

Europe

The conservation status has been assessed twice (Tucker & Heath 1994, Burfield & van Bommel 2004). The more recent excercise classified 524 species into four categories, based on applying international 'Red List' criteria at a regional (continental) level, details of which are summarised below. The first three categories represent Species of European Conservation Concern (SPEC).

SPEC 1 species are those which are of global conservation convern.

SPEC 2 species are those which have an unfavourable conservation status in Europe (if the population is threatened, declining, depleted from historical levels or is found only in a few locations) and is concentrated in Europe (i.e more than 50% of the global population occurs in Europe).

SPEC 3 species are which have an unfavourable conservation status in Europe (see above), but which are not concentrated in Europe.

Species which do not fulfil these criteria are regarded as non-SPEC species and of least conservation concern.

In the U.K. there are 3 SPEC 1 species, 24 SPEC 2 species and 43 SPEC 3 species, i.e. 70 species are of European conservation concern. A further 140 were assessed as of least concern (though of these 58 have populations concentrated in Europe).

Global

Species of global conservation concern are assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) to "identify and document those species most in need of conservation attention if global extinction rates are to be reduced". Species of concern are placed on a global Red List, according to internationally accepted criteria (IUCN 2001). The primary categories, with an indication of the qualifying criteria, are:

Critically Endangered: A rapid population decline in the last 10 years, an extremely restricted range or very low population size and so faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

Endangered: Population decline of >50%, a restricted range or low population size and so faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

Vulnerable: Population decline of >30%, a limited range or small population size, so the population faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.

Near Threatened: A species which does not qualify for either of the three categories above, but which is close to doing so, or is likely to do so in the near future.

Species which do not fulfil these criteria are considered of Least Concern, though some for which information is relatively limited are highlighte as Data Deficient. An additional category of Extinct is reserved for those for which there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died. See the IUCN Criteria for a full explanation of the qualifying criteria for each category.

Burfield, I. & van Bommel, F. 2004. Birds in Europe: population estimates, trends and conservation status. Birdlife International, Cambridge.

Gregory, R.D. et al. (2002) The population status of birds in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man: an analysis of conversation concern 2002-2007. British Birds 95:410-450.2002

IUCN (2001) Red List categories and criteria, version 3.1. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Tucker, G. & Heath, M. (1994) Birds in Europe: their conservation status. Birdlife International, Cambridge.