Banbury Ornithological Society

The species of birds seen in the BOS includes residents, summer visitors, winter visitors, passage migrants and vagrants. This page shows the species seen regularly in the BOS, that is those that have been seen almost every year from 2000-2019. There are currently 130 such species. For each species the following information is provided:

The number of years seen from 2000 to 2019
The number of months each year the species is seen. This helps to distinguish visitors from residents.
% Of Months - the percentage of the 240 months under review that the species has been recorded as being present. This provides an additional measure of occurence, though it is less accurate for species that we do not fully record. This figure is not provided for species we do not regularly record, i.e. very common species.
Records - the number of records we hold for this species since 1982
Max Count - the maximum number of birds seen in a 1 km square per day
1km squares - the number of 1km squares the species has been recorded in. This gives a measure of the distribution. There are 1200km squares in the BOS area.
Rank - this is a number to sort the birds into Taxonomic order, as defined by the IOC

Note that you can sort the list by any of the column values, such as by species name, by clicking on the column heading.

Sean Woodcock, MP for Banbury visited the BOS reserve at Balscote Quarry recently, to see conservation in action. Steve Holliday, one of the site wardens said, “Balscote may be a small site (6ha) but, through positive management, it holds Red List birds such as Lapwing and Yellowhammer, 24 species of butterfly and much more." We looked at the vital role volunteers play in habitat management on site and, in light of BOS data on local bird declines, how we can develop a more joined-up approach to nature conservation locally. We finished by discussing how new proposals in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill can benefit, not harm, biodiversity.

The Gambia - Richard Hall

Richard has visited The Gambia a couple of times and will explore the different habitats and regions of The Gambia as well as giving us some ideas of what birds are likely to be seen.

The Long Day Count is carried out by teams of observers in each of the twelve 10km squares recording the number of bird species seen during a maximum of 12 daylight hours on the second Sunday in May each year. Read more ...

Regular Species in the BOS

Sean Woodcock MP visits Balscote Quarry

13 April 2026 - Indoor Meeting at 7.30pm

Long Day Count: 2 or 3 May 2026