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The UK Bird Atlas

Great Shearwater (Ardenna gravis)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks August · Petrels, Shearwaters, and Diving Petrels · BOU category A

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

Great Shearwater (Ardenna gravis)
ALAN SCHMIERER from southeast AZ, USA, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Great Shearwater: 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.

Great Shearwater has been recorded in 107 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (4%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in August.

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
27% or more of visits
High
5% to 27%
Moderate
2% to 5%
Low
under 2%
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 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 0%<1%Insufficient records
March 0%<1%Very high
April 0%<1%Insufficient records
May 0%<1%Low
June 1%<1%Very high
July 16%<1%High
August 100%<1%Very high
September 36%<1%Very high
October 41%<1%Very high
November 10%<1%Low
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in August

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HP61Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NH98Highland, Scotland100%Very high
SH12Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SW11Sea, off Cornwall100%Very high
SW20Sea, off Cornwall100%Very high
SW61Cornwall, England100%Very high
SW81Cornwall, England100%Very high
SW91Sea, off Cornwall100%Very high
SX32Sea, off Cornwall100%Very high
SX43Sea, off Devon100%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.