Common Standards Monitoring guidance for birds - JNCC

Issue date: August 2004
Table 1.3 Interest feature: Aggregations of non-breeding species
Features qualifying under criteria 3.3, 3.4 and 3.7 of the Guidelines for Selection of Biological SSSIs apply when the features are cited as non-breeding, wintering or passage.
Features qualifying under any stage of the Selection Guidelines for Special Protection Areas may apply when the features are cited as non-breeding, wintering or passage.
This includes features qualifying under stage 1.3: 20,000 individual non-breeding waterbirds. Within the non-breeding waterbird assemblage individual species may be
separately listed as qualifying features if their populations exceed 1% of the national population or 2000 individuals.
Features qualifying under criteria 5 and 6 (formerly 3a and 3c) of the Ramsar Convention apply when the features are cited as non-breeding, wintering or passage.
A full list of species that may be features in this category is in Part 2 (available on JNCC website) of this guidance.
Reporting category
Aggregations of non-breeding birds
Attributes Targets Method of Assessment Comments
Bird population size
Maintain population within acceptable limits (in this
context population can be that of an individual
species or the total population of an assemblage):
♦
Based on the known natural fluctuations of the
population in the site, maintain the population at
or above the minimum for the site (see 3.5).
Counts or estimates of numbers of individuals.
Standard monitoring methods are widely
published and appropriate species-specific
surveys are listed in Part 2 (available on
JNCC website).
Existing survey data, e.g. from WeBS,
may be available for species on many
sites (see Section 5 and Part 2
(available on JNCC website)).
♦ Where the limits of natural fluctuations are not
known, maintain the population above 50% of that
at designation (see 3.5) - loss of 50% or more
unacceptable.
The target setting method that is adopted must be
recorded.
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