Birds of the Inner Hebrides

Abstract

SynopsisThe breeding and wintering birds of the Inner Hebrides are dealt with in this paper; seabirds and waterfowl have been described by Bourne and Harris (1979) and by Ogilvie and Atkinson-Willes (1983*). The bird populations of the Inner Hebrides are generally poorly documented, though Islay and the Small Isles are exceptions.Taking the Hebrides as a whole, stepwise regression analysis indicates that the number of landbird species to have bred on islands is significantly related to the following factors: the number of island habitats, island area, distance from the mainland and distance from the nearest large island. Islands near the mainland and large islands will contain more species than isolated islands of similar ecology and size. Agricultural change and island depopulation have resulted in the decrease of many bird populations. Plantations have increased the number of breeding bird species. Birds are treated either by species or by group. Appendices include work on corncrakes, Canna seabirds and sea eagles.