This relational database brings together 174 attributes concerning the 342 British Bird species listed in the Great Britain and Ireland Breeding and Winter Atlases and the Biodiversity Action Plans.

Information on British Bird species is very fragmented with different organisations and authors quantifying or describing species characteristics in differing styles and units. Accessing and collating disparate data within diverse bird publications can be time consuming. It is with this in mind that this comprehensive guide has been compiled and presented in a user-friendly software application.

It is available in ACCESS 97 format and has been designed with a view to performing either simple listings of species characteristics or to enable the more complex tasks of database interrogation in the form of specific searches, using single or multiple criteria.

A Text formatted version is also available.

Species List - species name with authority, races and common name

Anatomy - anatomical measurements, i.e. total length, wing span, bill length etc.

Behaviour - social behaviour, i.e. territory sizes, roosting data, bonding data

Bibliography - reference numbers of information sources

Body Weights - mean and range of body weights - males, females or combined male and female

Breeding Survey - 10km square occurrence and population change; 1994-1997

Conservation - conservation information, i.e. legal status, threats, BTO alert designations and Red/Amber/Green list designations with new changes

Distributions - species distributions i.e. world, GBI breeding and winter, and breeding changes; 1972-1991

Eggs - egg data, i.e. egg laying period, mean egg size, incubation period etc.

Habitat and Food - breeding and winter habitats, altitudinal data and food

Migration - migration and movement data

Moults - moult data: first and adult; pre and post breeding and juvenile; post breeding

Nests - nest data, i.e. site, dimensions, materials

Populations - population data, i.e. breeding and winter populations and trends; GBI, Irish, European. Adult survival and mortality, status summary, reasons for population changes, European populations and historical population data

Races and Status - races and status; whether migrant or resident etc.

Young - young data, i.e. fledging period, feeding and care, hatching success and young loss

Data Sources - look up table for information sources

Due to the large size of this database and its relational format, it has been divided into the following sample database extracts for ease of presentation on this website

Races and Status, Distributions, Populations, Habitat, Food and Conservation:

Nests, Eggs and Young:

Anatomy, Body weights and Moults:

Migration, Behaviour and Breeding:

Data Sources:

The British Bird Database (version 1.0) is available to interested parties as an executable zipped file on disk, in Access 97 or Text format, with installation instructions and a help document.

Copies of the database are available from EMSDATA for an introductory fee of £45.00 (incl. p&p)

Updates, as new versions will be available in due course.

EMS will conduct customised searches and formatted output documentation if required.

To order a copy of the British Birds Database (version 1.0) or for further information please contact: