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See also 1995 in birding and ornithology, main events of 1996, other specialist lists of events in 1996 and 1997 in birding and ornithology

Worldwide

• 41 Northern Bald Ibises, a fifth of the known world population, die in Morocco of unknown causes.

New species

See also Bird species new to science described in the 1990s

• The Cryptic Warbler (Cryptosylvicola randrianasoloi) from Madagascar is first described.

Taxonomic developments

To be completed

Ornithologists

Deaths

• 21 May - Bobby Tulloch (b. 1929)

Europe

Britain

Breeding birds

• The only breeding pair of Golden Eagles in England hatch a chick for the first time in three years at Haweswater.
• 580 singing male Corncrakes are counted, up from 537 in 1995.
• The first inland breeding of Avocets in modern times takes place at a site in London. However breeding success at coastal colonies in East Anglia is poor.
• A pair of Hoopoes successfully breed in Mid Wales.

Migrant and wintering birds

• Thousands of Waxwings are seen across Britain in the first few months of the year.
• Large numbers of Little Stints and Curlew Sandpipers pass through during the autumn.

Rare birds

• A Redhead in Nottinghamshire in March is Britain's first
• An American Coot at Stodmarsh, Kent in April is Britain's first
• An Indigo Bunting on Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire in October is Britain's first
• A Cedar Waxwing in Nottingham in February is Britain's second, but the first to be seen by large numbers of observers
• A Great Knot on Teesside in October is Britain's second, but the first to be seen by large numbers of observers
• A Caspian Plover on Shetland in June is Britain's fourth
• A Calandra Lark on the Isles of Scilly in April is Britain's fifth
• During October, the Isles of Scilly also hosted two Black-and-white Warblers and Britain's sixth Buff-bellied Pipit
• A Spanish Sparrow arrives in Cumbria in July to begin a year-long stay; few observers had seen this species in Britain previously
• The influx of Arctic Redpolls of the race exilipes which began in late 1995 continued, and became the largest recorded invasion of this species into the country

Other Events

• Thousands of seabirds are killed by an oil spill when the Sea Empress oil tanker runs aground in Pembrokeshire in February.
• A trial cull of Ruddy Ducks takes place in the Midlands.
• At Rutland Water a project to reintroduce Ospreys begins.
• The British Birdwatching Fair has the Vietnamese rainforest as its theme for the year with the Vietnamese Pheasant as its flagship species.

Ireland

• A Long-toed Stint at Ballycotton, County Cork in June is the first for Ireland.

Scandinavia

To be completed

North America

To be completed

Asia

• Four Siberian White Cranes arrive at Bharatpur in India, the first records of this highly endangered species there since the 1992/1993 winter.