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The UK Bird Atlas

Bewick's Swan (Cygnus columbianus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Winter visitor · reporting peaks January · Ducks, Swans, and Geese · BOU category AEF

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

Bewick's Swan (Cygnus columbianus)
Dominic Sherony, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Bewick's Swan: 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.

Bewick's Swan has been recorded in 369 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (12%) in records to 2026. Winter visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in 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
6% to 100%
Moderate
1% to 6%
Low
under 1%
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 64%<1%Very high
March 13%<1%Very high
April 1%<1%Very high
May 1%<1%Very high
June 1%<1%Very high
July 0%<1%Very high
August 0%<1%Very high
September 0%<1%Very high
October 2%<1%Very high
November 43%<1%Very high
December 71%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
C83Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland100%Very high
NO21Fife, Scotland100%Very high
NX43Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland100%Very high
NZ27Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ71North Yorkshire, England100%Very high
SE40Barnsley, England100%Very high
SE74East Riding of Yorkshire, England100%Very high
SJ28Wirral, England100%Very high
SJ45Cheshire West and Chester, England100%Very high
SJ46Cheshire West and Chester, England100%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.