The Birds Directive (Directive 2009/147/EC) came into force in Ireland in 1981. Article 12 of this directive requires Member States to report on the implementation of national provisions taken under this Directive including specific reporting on status and trends of bird species. The first new format Article 12 report was submitted by member states in 2014 covering the four year period 2008 – 2012 inclusive. The Eionet website provides access to the information contained in all the national reports - see http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/article12/.

The reports include a separate report for each individual bird species. If the particular report is describing a breeding population then a breeding distribution and range map forms part the report. Detailed distribution data was primarily derived from the 2007-11 Bird Atlas (via BirdWatch Ireland) but also from species specific projects conducted by NPWS and others. Final 10km and 50km grid mapping was generated from this information by NPWS and by Birdwatch Ireland.

The resources referenced in this metadata relate to these distribution and range mapping for breeding populations in Irish National Grid.

The individual species reports on the Eionet website provide important information on the sources and selection of data to derive the final distributions and ranges.

All enquires on detailed distributions should first be directed to BirdWatch Ireland. NPWS is in a position to release the 10km (and 50km where appropriate) derived grid distribution data.

Details of the Article 12 the related reporting requirements, including reporting format guidance and reference portal are available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/knowledge/rep_birds/index_en.htm.

The following Data Resources are included in this download, and detailed metadata is available for each resource in the download:

• AR1212_CurrentDistributionAllSpecies.shp -

Multipart polygon shapefile showing the national distribution of the all reported breeding bird species. The national grid distributions for the 135 individual species are largely based on the national distributions for these species generated by Birdwatch Ireland for the BirdAtlas2007 to 2011.

• AR1212_CurrentRangeAllSpecies.shp

Multipart polygon shapefile showing the national range of the all 135 reported breeding bird species.

Range "...describes roughly the spatial limits within which the habitat or species occurs.