Understanding the changing fortunes of Britain's rarest breeding birds using 50 years of ecological data

In a period of rapid environmental change, impacting both natural habitats and climate, it is imperative to monitor key species, both to better understand their ecology and to direct conservation actions.

In the face of recent climate change, we are witnessing substantial changes, both increases and declines, in populations.

Few datasets exist that monitor species consistently across the recent decades and back before factors such as climate change were substantially impacting species. One such high-quality dataset is that of the UK Rare Breeding Bird Panel (RBBP). RBBP collects data on the rarest (