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The UK Bird Atlas

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Winter visitor · reporting peaks December to January · Waxwings · BOU category AEF

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

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)
Tatiana Bulyonkova from Novosibirsk, Russia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Waxwing: 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.

Waxwing has been recorded in 1,050 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (35%) in records to 2026. Winter visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in December to January.

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
100% to 100%
Moderate
2% to 100%
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 100%<1%Very high
February 41%<1%Very high
March 28%<1%Very high
April 7%<1%Very high
May 1%<1%Very high
June 0%<1%Insufficient records
July 0%<1%Very high
August 0%<1%Very high
September 0%<1%Insufficient records
October 26%<1%Very high
November 64%<1%Very high
December 85%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
D22Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland100%Very high
NB43Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NH98Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ16Moray, Scotland100%Very high
NJ27Moray, Scotland100%Very high
NJ81Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NM80Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
NN60Stirling, Scotland100%Very high
NN68Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NN80Perth and Kinross, 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.