Development of an Upland Bird Indicator for the UK and for England

When the suite of wild bird indicators was first developed for England and the UK in the late 1990s, it was felt that insufficient data were available to be able to produce a sufficiently robust indicator for upland habitats. With the continuation and growth of the BTO/JNCC/RSPB UK Breeding Bird Survey, targeted efforts to improve coverage in the uplands, as well as further repeated surveys of scarcer breeding species under the SCARABBS (Statutory Conservation Agency and RSPB Annual Breeding Bird Scheme) programme, it was considered now feasible to develop a robust and sufficiently long-term upland indicator alongside those for other habitats. In doing so we can fill an obvious gap in biodiversity reporting and work to assess the success of efforts to protect our important upland environment.