List of birds of Wales

Red kite, often considered to be the national bird of Wales.[1]

This list of birds of Wales includes every species of bird that has been recorded in a wild state in Wales. Compared to the avifauna of Britain as a whole, Wales has fewer breeding species, but these include a number of moorland species such as red grouse and black grouse, large numbers of seabirds (particularly on offshore islands such as Skomer, Grassholm and Bardsey) and good populations of several species typical of Welsh oak woods including redstart, pied flycatcher and wood warbler.[2][3] Among the birds of prey is the red kite, which had become extinct in other parts of Britain until being reintroduced recently.[1] In winter many wildfowl and waders are found around the coast, attracted by the mild temperatures.[2] In spring and autumn a variety of migrant and vagrant birds can be seen, particularly on headlands and islands.[2] Three-quarters of the UK population of the red-billed chough resides in Wales.

The list is based on Birds in Wales (Lovegrove et al. 1994), Birds in Wales 1992–2022 (Green 2022) and the list of the Welsh Ornithological Society (Prater & Thorpe 2006) with updates from the Welsh Records Panel's annual reports. The taxonomy and scientific names follow the official list of the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU).[4] The English names are the vernacular names used in the 7th edition of the BOU list with the standardized names from that list given in brackets where they differ.[5] The family introductions are based on The New Encyclopedia of Birds (Perrins 2004) except where otherwise stated.

Certain categories of birds are noted with the following tags:

  • (A) Accidental - a species that rarely or accidentally occurs in Wales
  • (I) Introduced - a species introduced to Wales as a consequence, direct or indirect, of human actions

The total number of species on the list is 463 and 10 introduced species. About 150 species breed annually.[2]


  1. ^ a b Pugh (2005)
  2. ^ a b c d O'Shea (2000)
  3. ^ Tipling (1996)
  4. ^ British Ornithologist's Union (2008)
  5. ^ Dudley et al. (2006)