Great Bustard (Otis tarda)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks March · Bustards · BOU category AE*F

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

Francesco Veronesi from Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Peak months

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.

Great Bustard has been recorded in 22 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (1%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England. Reporting peaks in March.

Conservation status: Endangered (IUCN Red List, EN)

View on the IUCN Red List

Very high: 100% or more of visits
High: 32% to 100%
Moderate: 4% to 32%
Low: under 4%
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
Month	Relative to peak	Share of visits	Typical class
January	62%	<1%	Moderate
February	41%	<1%	Moderate
March	100%	<1%	Low
April	0%	<1%	Very high
May	0%	<1%	Very high
June	0%	<1%	Very high
July	0%	<1%	Insufficient records
August	70%	<1%	Very high
September	66%	<1%	Very high
October	65%	<1%	Very high
November	47%	<1%	Low
December	77%	<1%	Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

Square	Where	Share of visits	Class
SU15	Wiltshire, England	52%	High
SU05	Wiltshire, England	43%	High
SU14	Wiltshire, England	6%	Moderate
SU26	Wiltshire, England	3%	Low
SU38	Oxfordshire, England	2%	Low
SU13	Wiltshire, England	2%	Low
SZ39	Hampshire, England	<1%	Low
ST35	Somerset, England	<1%	Surveyed, not recorded
ST43	Somerset, England	<1%	Surveyed, not recorded
ST44	Somerset, England	<1%	Surveyed, not recorded