Volunteer fieldwork

The volunteers who collected the data on which this website is based deserve full credit for their achievement. The population trends and other results that we present rely on the sustained, long-term fieldwork effort of many thousands of BTO volunteers. Our knowledge of the conservation status of the UK's bird populations is possible only as a result of their dedication. The conservation community owes them all an enormous debt of gratitude for their work. Without their enthusiasm, the cause of conservation in the UK would be very much the poorer.

We are also very grateful to the many land managers and landowners who permitted census work, nest recording and ringing to take place on their land.

Report production and analysis

This website presents the latest in a series of reports, prepared within the partnership between the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) (on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs - Northern Ireland, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage), as part of its programme of research into nature conservation.

Mr and Mrs J A Pye's Charitable Settlement provided additional support towards the development of the website.

Our report includes results from the Breeding Bird Survey, which is funded jointly by BTO, JNCC and RSPB. The BBS partners are very grateful to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affiars in Northern Ireland and to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Scotland for supporting professional surveys in areas that would otherwise be difficult to cover. The report also includes results from the Ringing Scheme, which is funded by the JNCC, BTO and the ringers themselves.

Paul Woodcock of JNCC provided helpful discussions, comments and support during the production of this report. Helen Baker, Chris Cheffings, Jacquie Clark, Nigel Clark, David Gibbons, Jeremy Greenwood, Rowena Langston, Ian McLean, Ian Mitchell, Deborah Procter, David Stroud, Pierre Tellier, Malcolm Vincent and Lawrence Way provided helpful comments on earlier editions of this publication.

The analyses would not have been possible without the hard work of many past and present BTO staff who have organised schemes, collated data sets, overseen analyses or contributed to the text in previous versions of this report, including: Sue Adams, Dawn Balmer, Lee Barber, Richard Bashford, Jeremy Blackburn, Jacquie Clark, Mark Collier, Greg Conway, Rachel Coombes, Humphrey Crick, Daria Dadam, Diana de Palacio, Sarah Eglington, Steve Freeman, Mark Grantham, Bridget Griffin, Andrew Joys, Allison Kew, John Marchant, Stuart Newson, Mike Raven, Brenda Read, Anna Renwick, Kate Risely, Sabine Schaeffer, Martin Sullivan, Richard Thewlis, Anne Trewhitt and Jane Waters.

The work is also heavily dependent on the BTO's computer and database systems overseen by Andy Musgrove. Iain Downie and Karen Wright were previously joint leaders of the BTO's IT team and contributed to the production of this report. Susan Waghorn, Laura Smith and Mandy Andrews also exercised great skill in helping to design and build the website. The site is now managed by William Skellorn.

We are very grateful to all of the organisations and individuals listed above for their contributions to this report.