Manx Technology GroupSmart Island
Environment

Nature & Biodiversity

1,517,863 species occurrence records from the NBN Atlas, covering the Isle of Man and its surrounding waters. 127+ years of wildlife recording by citizen scientists, conservation organisations, and research institutions.

Data generated: 22 Mar 2026

1,517,863
Total Records
Open-licenced observations
22
Species Groups
Taxonomic categories
1996
Peak Year
85,713 records
20
Contributing Datasets
From NBN Atlas partners

đŸī¸ Island Wildlife at a Glance

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Birds Dominate the Record

700,271 bird records (46% of all data). The Isle of Man sits on Atlantic flyways — a critical stopover for migrants.

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Rich Plant Diversity

419,693 flowering plant records plus 25,831 fungi observations. The island's mild oceanic climate supports species at the northern edge of their range, including rare orchids and coastal heathlands unique to the Irish Sea.

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Marine Biodiversity

53,931 marine records across fish, molluscs, crustaceans, and algae. The IoM's territorial waters include 10+ Marine Protected Areas, from the Ramsey Bay MNR to the Calf of Man.

📈 Recording Trends

Wildlife recording peaked in 1996 (85,713 records) before declining to a 2020s average of ~36,857/year. This doesn't mean biodiversity is falling — recording effort varies with volunteer participation, survey programmes, and funding cycles. The Calf of Man Bird Observatory alone contributed 438k records (1959-2004).

Records by Species Group (Top 15)

Records by Year

Top 15 Species by Record Count

Records by Kingdom

🔍 Key Species Insights

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The IoM Chough

Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax — the Red-billed Chough is the Isle of Man's national bird, appearing on the island's coat of arms. With 18,000+ sightings, the IoM is one of the UK's last strongholds for this species. The island's cliff-top grasslands provide ideal foraging habitat.

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No Snakes, Few Reptiles

Like Ireland, the Isle of Man has no native snakes. The 0 reptile records are mostly slow worms (Anguis fragilis) and occasional marine turtles. The 669 amphibian records include common frogs and palmate newts.

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Bat Population

25,454 mammal records include significant bat survey data from the Manx Bat Group (est. 1986). Seven bat species are recorded on the island including pipistrelles, long-eared bats, and Daubenton's — all protected under the Wildlife Act 1990.

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Insects & Pollinators

170,193 insect records spanning butterflies, moths, beetles, bees, and dragonflies. The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme tracks IoM transects, and macro-moth surveys have documented 105k+ records. The island's traditional farmland supports pollinator communities increasingly rare on the UK mainland.

đŸĻTop 20 Bird SpeciesMost recorded species on the Isle of Man
#SpeciesCommon NameRecords
1Larus argentatusHerring Gull22,782
2Turdus merulaEurasian Blackbird17,212
3Troglodytes troglodytesWren16,860
4Haematopus ostralegusOystercatcher16,494
5Corvus cornixHooded Crow16,344
6Larus marinusGreat Black-backed Gull16,331
7Erithacus rubeculaRobin15,916
8Phalacrocorax aristotelisShag15,320
9Anthus pratensisMeadow Pipit15,280
10Pica picaMagpie14,368
11Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocoraxRed-billed Chough13,920
12Motacilla albaWhite Wagtail13,722
13Numenius arquataEurasian Curlew13,447
14Fringilla coelebsCommon Chaffinch13,277
15Anthus petrosusRock Pipit13,260
16Corvus coraxRaven13,183
17Morus bassanusNorthern Gannet13,013
18Linaria cannabinaLinnet12,728
19Saxicola rubicolaStonechat12,493
20Sturnus vulgarisStarling12,422
21Fulmarus glacialisNorthern Fulmar12,239
22Prunella modularisDunnock12,005
23Hirundo rusticaSwallow11,681
24Anas platyrhynchosMallard10,377
25Rissa tridactylaBlack-legged Kittiwake10,336
26Oenanthe oenantheWheatear9,863
27Larus fuscusLesser Black-backed Gull9,645
28Coloeus monedulaWestern Jackdaw9,568
29Falco tinnunculusKestrel9,567
30Phalacrocorax carboGreat Cormorant9,489
📊Contributing DatasetsWho collects this data

IoM biodiversity data comes from professional surveys, citizen science programmes, and long-running volunteer recording schemes. The BTO/JNCC/RSPB partnership provides the largest openly-licenced bird dataset, while DASSH holds academic marine survey records.

#DatasetRecords
1a451e2eb-f70f-49c4-b1ca-fe78e65bacbe438,338
24fa7b334-ce0d-4e88-aaae-2e0c138d049e171,777
3ca0ade5b-06fc-4b1a-93d6-09488fc6ed6a136,048
42c7c72b2-ac29-4be3-a95f-6b09e8f4b932130,114
50d9accc4-309d-44ad-901e-f221e1d0ec80119,364
629ce88ff-5cf1-47fd-af44-8477c52c910c106,511
7a86201a4-fa20-44e5-ade2-68ea3563cfa897,549
82ac4b2f0-9887-4d25-a8fa-f94391e8791944,680
9b2e61bb2-fdaa-40a2-815d-a5aa33c606a430,444
106014992e-9970-4c51-bf16-c6762a30e58e24,368
11fe222206-bbc2-439b-8811-057e34e8fa2e21,619
122120e938-254a-4de9-a5d4-2e7b4d7a549321,517
13c45c8530-fd7d-4f30-a9e4-c6d243a4b40418,795
14ae1c0f69-c920-4a94-94d5-4a0b08966a8613,411
15d59ea6f3-f758-4d84-8c90-be078629127e13,237
16219285f8-b3c9-4c34-963e-bdd3c14692fd9,513
17ad73fa3b-cc93-4709-a41d-dbac4ac3d21d7,404
183470d506-e667-4e3f-b178-819669684c055,919
191e266c3d-92ef-4d5a-8e4a-c04742c772c34,800
20Manx Verified casual occasional4,197
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Data Licensing & Attribution

CC-BY-NC 4.0, CC-BY 4.0, CC0 1.0, OGL

This data is sourced from the NBN Atlas and includes records under multiple Creative Commons licences. Smart Island is a non-commercial public interest platform — no data is sold or used for monetary compensation.

Licence Breakdown

  • CC-BY-NC 4.0 — ~1.5M records (non-commercial use)
  • OGL — ~112k records (Open Government Licence)
  • CC-BY 4.0 — ~110k records (attribution required)
  • CC0 1.0 — ~4k records (public domain)

Attribution

Species occurrence data provided by the NBN Atlas. Records contributed by the Manx Biological Recording Partnership, Calf of Man Bird Observatory, BTO, JNCC, RSPB, Butterfly Conservation, Manx Wildlife Trust, Manx Bat Group, Seasearch, DASSH, and many citizen scientists. Data accessed via the NBN Atlas API under the terms of the respective licences.

Also available via GBIF (1.76M records) and the NBN Atlas Isle of Man portal.

â„šī¸About This Data

Data sourced from the NBN Atlas, the UK's largest biodiversity data network. The IoM portal holds records contributed by the Manx Biological Recording Partnership, Manx BirdLife, Manx Wildlife Trust, the Calf of Man Bird Observatory, and many citizen scientists.

Species occurrence data is queried within a 50km radius of the Isle of Man centre point (54.15°N, 4.5°W), which includes the island, Calf of Man, and surrounding territorial waters. Records span 127+ years.

Data source: NBN Atlas (records-ws.nbnatlas.org) | CC-BY-NC 4.0, CC-BY 4.0, CC0 1.0, OGL

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