2.5 Heronries Census

The BTO Heronries Census began in 1928 and is the longest-running breeding-season bird monitoring scheme in the world. As predators at the top of the freshwater food chain, Grey Herons are excellent indicators of environmental health in the countryside. They build large stick nests, mostly in colonies at traditional sites. The aim of this census is to collect annual nest counts of Grey Herons from as many sites as possible in the United Kingdom. Volunteer observers make counts of 'apparently occupied nests' at heron colonies each year. Changes in the numbers of nests, especially over periods of several years, provide a clear measure of the population trend. In recent seasons, observers have also counted the nests of Little Egrets Egretta garzetta, which have been appearing in an increasing number of southern heronries since the first breeding records in 1996. Counts of Cormorant colonies, which often occur alongside heronries, are also welcome (Newson et al. 2007).

Coverage is coordinated through a network of regional organisers. A core of birdwatchers and ringers monitor their local colonies annually, providing a backbone of regular counts. Around two-thirds of the heronries in England and Wales are currently counted each year, with more-complete censuses carried out in 1929, 1954, 1964, 1985 and 2003. Historically rather few counts have been made of heronries in Scotland and Northern Ireland, except during the special surveys, but support for the Heronries Census has been growing fast in recent years. Counts are submitted mostly on cards and the data are entered onto computer at BTO headquarters. The number of heronries counted each year has grown in recent years to around 550–600.

Data analysis

Population changes are estimated using a ratio-estimators approach derived from that of Thomas (1993). Essentially, the ratios of the populations in any two (not necessarily consecutive) years of the survey are estimated from counts at sites visited in each of those years. These ratios can be used to estimate the counts at sites that were not visited, and hence build an estimate of the total population. Further modifications have been made to allow for the extinction of colonies and the establishment of new ones (Marchant et al. 2004).

On the Grey Heron page of this report, the UK trend is presented graphically with annual estimates in blue and their 85% confidence limits in green. A smooth trend line in red is based on a non-parametric regression model, using thin-plate smoothing splines with 23 degrees of freedom. Trends are also shown for England and Wales together, and for England, Wales and Scotland alone.

Next section – 2.6 Constant Effort Sites Scheme

Back to Methodology Index

CLICK HERE to visit the Heronries Census page of the main BTO website

CLICK HERE to visit the Little Egrets page of the main BTO website (WeBS)

BTO Home | JNCC Home
 © British Trust for Ornithology. Charity No 216652 (England and Wales).
Company Limited by Guarantee No 357284 (England and Wales).
Registered Office: The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, UK.
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement          Email:

This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Barimore, C., Coombes, R.H.,
Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. & Thewlis, R.M. (2007)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2007.
BTO Research Report No. 487. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 7 November, 2008