Sandwick and Clift Hills (United Kingdom) IBA | Details

UK240

Sandwick and Clift Hills

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 Skua Catharacta skua	LC	breeding (2002)	215 breeding pairs	A4ii, B1ii, B3, C3

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	favourable	very high	very 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 Skua Catharacta skua	215 / 155 (breeding pairs)	100	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%)	rapid deterioration (>30% over 3 generations)	very high

Response (conservation actions taken for the key species and/or their habitats)
Designation	Planning	Action	Result
Little/none of site covered (<10%)	Unknown	Unknown	very low

Habitats

Habitat	% of IBA	Habitat detail
Grassland	-
Shrubland	-	Heathland
Wetlands (inland)	-	Rivers and streams

Land use

Land use	% of IBA
agriculture	100

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: Sandwick and Clift Hills (United Kingdom). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/sandwick-and-clift-hills-iba-united-kingdom on 06/01/2025.