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The UK Bird Atlas

Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks November · Longspurs and Snow Buntings · BOU category AF

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

Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)
Amasuela - Luis Lafuente Agudín, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Snow Bunting: 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.

Snow Bunting has been recorded in 680 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (23%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in November.

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
2% to 6%
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 52%<1%Low
February 37%<1%Very high
March 19%<1%Very high
April 6%<1%Very high
May 3%<1%Very high
June 3%<1%Low
July 2%<1%Very high
August 1%<1%High
September 13%<1%Low
October 71%1%Very high
November 100%2%Very high
December 47%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in November

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU47Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY40Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY42Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NB35Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NB45Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NF99Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NH24Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH80Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH81Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH88Highland, Scotland100%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.