Below is a list of species seen in the county (the Lincs List). Each name forms a link to more details about the species, including its status, records of rarities and images. Names preceded by dashes (- -) are distinctive subspecies for which separate details are available. Some of this information is available only to members who are logged in. Download the latest Lincolnshire Bird Checklist (excel format).

In line with the BOU and BBRC, we are following IOC taxonomy and species order. BOU recently published the 10th edition of the British List in IOC order and with full revised common and latin names. Details can be seen here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.13065. Taxonomy will be updated when relevant changes are published by subsequent IOC updates, which are published twice a year.

Records for species with (LBRC) after the displayed name are rare/scarce in the county and details should be submitted to the Lincolnshire Bird Records Committee  for confirmation. Records of sightings of species with (BBRC) after the displayed name are national rarities, of which records are assessed by the British Birds Rarities Committee  to whom details should be sent (https://www.bbrc.org.uk/submit-a-sighting). A copy of these records should be sent to the County Recorder for information at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Once accepted, these sightings will appear in the Lincolnshire Bird Report. Species categorised as rare breeding birds are coded with the acronym RBBP. Please report these confidentially as usual to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

There are over 400 species and sub-species on the list and we have now updated the list to include the text from the new Birds of Lincolnshire; expanded the text in some cases where available space in the book didn't allow more; begun adding 'Finder's reports' for those species occurring in the county for the first time, and also where there was a 'modern' record when a bird was recorded for the first time after a long absence. We would welcome constructive comments, including errors in the accounts; please contact the county recorder or use the contact form  on the home page. Accounts have been prepared up to the year specified under the individual species. Note that all of the photographs are of birds in Lincolnshire, and are illustrative of birds in a county setting. For some of the older records especially,  when cameras were less capable and digiscoping hadn't been invented, some shots are what would be termed "record shots". They are all solid Lincolnshire though! 

It is apparent that there are some species for which we have been unable to source photographs at the moment, historical records for instance, and other where it will always be difficult (e.g. seabirds). In due course, we will post a list of these in the eNewsletters we will be publishing regularly, hoping that some of these may come out of the woodwork.

Species recorded in Lincolnshire only as escapes or of other suspect origin are listed here.

Certain key references are abbreviated as follows:

• BBRC  The annual reports of the British Birds Rarities Committee, published in British Birds.
• BTOA   Balmer, D.E., Gillings, S., Caffrey, B.J., Swann R.L., Downie, I.S., & Fuller, R.J. 2013. Bird Atlas 2007-11: the breeding andwintering birds of Britain and Ireland.BTO Bppks, Thetford.
• L&A      Lorand, A. and Atkin, K. (1989) The Birds of Lincolnshire and South Humberside. Leading Edge Press, Hawes.
• RC       The Rarities Committee, as it was known in the early years
• S&C     Smith, A. E. and Cornwallis, R. K. (1955). The birds of Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire Natural History Brochure No. 2. Pub. Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, Lincoln.
• Naylor  Naylor, KA 2023 Historical Rare Birds <https://www.historicalrarebirds.info/>

References to other individual supporting documents are provided where necessary in each species entry. Liberal reference has been made to all of the annual "Report on scarce migrant birds in Britain" and "Report on rare birds in Great Britain" publications in British Birds, the sister publication to the BBRC reports, and to BTO data from the Ringing Scheme and the Breeding BIrd Survey. We freely and gratefully acknowledge these organisations for the use of their data in these publications. The BBRC notified all county recorders recently that they wished to clear their archive of all paper BBRC submissions dating back to their formation in 1958 and that counties could purchase these for a small fee. LBC did so, and have the complete paper file on record in six lever-arch files held by Officers of the club. This archive has been used to generate "Finder's reports" in the following species accounts where they were previously unavailable and we hope club members find these accounts of interest.

Finally, some of the published data including charts and histograms have been taken from previously published species accounts and articles in Lincolnshire BIrd Report, updated where necessary. Much of the pre-2017 work was prepared by Andrew Henderson, to whom grateful thanks are due.

All text and data in the Lincs List are © Lincolnshire Bird Club, and images are © of the photographers.