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The UK Bird Atlas

Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)Where and when to see it in the UK

Vagrant · reporting peaks January · New World Blackbirds, Troupials, and Allies · BOU category A

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

Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Too few records to rate squares by month. Each marked square has at least one record; the table below gives the count and years.

Brown-headed Cowbird: 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.

Brown-headed Cowbird has been recorded in 2 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (0%) in records to 2026. Vagrant in the UK. Reporting peaks in January.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List

Records by 10 km square

SquareWhereRecordsYearsVerified
HZ27Shetland Islands, Scotland52009unverified
SM80Pembrokeshire, Wales12009unverified

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.