Calf of Eday (United Kingdom) IBA | Details

UK132

Calf of Eday

Current view: Details

IBA Justification

The site was identified as internationally important for bird conservation in 2007 because it was regularly supporting significant populations of the species listed below, meeting IBA criteria.

Populations meeting IBA criteria ('key species') at the site:

Species	Red List	Season (year/s of estimate)	Size	IBA criteria
Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus	LC	breeding (1996)	940 breeding pairs	B3

IBA Conservation

Ideally the conservation status of the IBA will have been checked regularly since the site was first identified in 2007. The most recent assessment (2007) is shown below.

IBA conservation status
Year of assessment	State	Pressure	Response
2007	very unfavourable	very high	low
Whole site assessed?	State assessed by	Accuracy of information
yes	population	good

State (condition of the key species' populations)
Species	Actual vs Reference (units)	% remaining	Result
Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus	100 / 940 (breeding pairs)	11	very unfavourable
A4iii Species group - seabirds	7,983 / 10,688 (breeding pairs)	75	near favourable

Pressure (threats to the key species and/or their habitats)
Threat	Timing	Scope	Severity	Result
Climate change and severe weather	happening now	whole population/area (>90%)	moderate deterioration (10–30% in 3 generations)	very high
Agricultural expansion and intensification	happening now	most of population/area (50–90%)	slow deterioration (1–10% over 3 generations)	high

Response (conservation actions taken for the key species and/or their habitats)
Designation	Planning	Action	Result
Whole area of site (>90%) covered by appropriate conservation designation	Unknown	Not assessed	low

IBA Protection

Year	Protected Area	Designation (management category)	% coverage of IBA
1983	Calf of Eday	Site of Special Scientific Interest (UK) (IV)	100
2011	Calf of Eday	Marine Protected Area (OSPAR) (UA)	14

Habitats

Habitat	% of IBA	Habitat detail
Grassland	-	Humid grasslands
Marine Coastal/Supratidal	-
Shrubland	-	Heathland
Wetlands (inland)	-	Standing freshwater

Land use

Land use	% of IBA
agriculture	-

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: Calf of Eday (United Kingdom). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/calf-of-eday-iba-united-kingdom on 06/01/2025.