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The UK Bird Atlas

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks October to December · Rails, Gallinules, and Coots · BOU category AF

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

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)
Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Water Rail: 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.

Water Rail has been recorded in 1,250 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (42%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in October to December.

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
18% or more of visits
High
6% to 18%
Moderate
2% to 6%
Low
under 2%
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 75%5%High
February 66%4%Moderate
March 61%4%Very high
April 37%3%Low
May 24%2%Low
June 22%2%Low
July 29%2%Low
August 49%3%Very high
September 65%4%Very high
October 89%6%High
November 100%7%Very high
December 89%6%High

Squares with the highest reporting rate in October

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU69Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NG72Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ40Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NJ91Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK02Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK14Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NN40Stirling, Scotland100%Very high
NS34North Ayrshire, Scotland100%Very high
NT29Fife, Scotland100%Very high
NZ24County Durham, 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.