Since 2005, the European Commission has financed European Red Lists for all terrestrial vertebrate groups, except birds. During 2012-2015, a Commission-funded project – led by BirdLife International, and involving a consortium including the European Bird Census Council, Wetlands International, IUCN, BTO, Sovon, RSPB, Czech Society for Ornithology and BirdLife Europe – filled this gap.

The European Red List of Birds is a review of the regional threat status of the 533 wild bird species occurring naturally and regularly in Europe, according to the IUCN Regional Red List Guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the European and European Union (EU27) levels, building on two earlier assessments – the Birds in Europe volumes of 1994 and 2004.

In 2015, the EU27 Red List assessments were based largely on the official data reported by EU Member States to the European Commission under Article 12 of the Birds Directive in 2013-14. To complete the dataset for the European Red List assessments, similar data were sourced from BirdLife Partners and other collaborating experts in other European countries.

The table below provides links to factsheets containing detailed information on each species, including their Red List Category and Criteria (at both regional scales), population size and trend, geographic distribution, habitat and ecology, major threats and conservation measures.

More detailed discussion of the results can be found in the European Red List of Birds publication (BirdLife International 2015).