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The UK Bird Atlas

Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks October · Sandpipers and Allies · BOU category A

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

Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
Wwcsig, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Lesser Yellowlegs: 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.

Lesser Yellowlegs has been recorded in 135 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (5%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in October.

Conservation status: Vulnerable (IUCN Red List, VU)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
21% or more of visits
High
4% to 21%
Moderate
<1% to 4%
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 29%<1%Moderate
February 28%<1%High
March 25%<1%Low
April 36%<1%Very high
May 16%<1%Low
June 11%<1%Low
July 50%<1%High
August 16%<1%High
September 36%<1%Very high
October 100%<1%High
November 22%<1%Moderate
December 17%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in October

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU16Sea, off Shetland Islands100%Very high
HU41Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
J55Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland100%Very high
NU23Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ27Northumberland, England100%Very high
SE64York, England100%Very high
SE91North Lincolnshire, England100%Very high
SS49Swansea, Wales100%Very high
SW84Cornwall, England100%Very high
SY99Dorset, 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.