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The UK Bird Atlas

Bittern (Botaurus stellaris)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks May · Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Bittern (Botaurus stellaris)
Francesco Veronesi from Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Bittern: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Bittern has been recorded in 464 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (16%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in May.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
6% to 100%
Moderate
1% to 6%
Low
under 1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 24%<1%Very high
February 27%<1%Very high
March 44%1%Very high
April 77%2%High
May 100%3%High
June 63%2%High
July 32%<1%Very high
August 22%<1%Very high
September 16%<1%Low
October 21%<1%Very high
November 20%<1%Very high
December 19%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in May

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NY96Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ29Northumberland, England100%Very high
SD41Lancashire, England100%Very high
SD57Lancashire, England100%Very high
SK31Leicestershire, England100%Very high
SK50Leicestershire, England100%Very high
SK58Rotherham, England100%Very high
SK59Doncaster, England100%Very high
SK61Leicestershire, England100%Very high
SK69Doncaster, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.