Bird census counts at the Zwin Nature Reserve

This census dataset contains occurrence data on birds observed and counted in a large part of the Zwin Nature Reserve (ZNR), adjacent to the Zwin Nature Park (ZNP), at Knokke-Heist in West Flanders, Belgium. The data have been collected in a standardised way since January 2019, mid-monthly and year-round, at fixed locations within the ZNR area. This comprehensive census area largely includes the tidal mudflats and salt marshes in the ‘Zwin Plain’, the 'Zwingeul Channel' and the newly developed 'Zwin Expansion', and the grasslands with freshwater ponds in the 'Kleyne Vlakte' near the ‘Zwin dunes and polders’. All these Zwin subareas are situated within the European Natura 2000 network (particularly protected under both the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive) and the global Ramsar Convention (protecting Wetlands of International Importance).

This dataset is published as a standardised Darwin Core Archive and includes for each sampling event a parentEventID, grouping eventIDs per locality and event date, according to the sampling protocol, with sample size and event time (if registered), the country code, longitude and latitude with geodetic datum and coordinate uncertainty (in the event core), and for each occurrence, an occurrenceID, the scientific name, Dutch vernacular name, taxon rank, occurrence status, the number of counted individuals, and the identifiedBy term for the field observer’s name, beside the interlinked eventID (in the occurrence extension).

To avoid data duplication, waterbird occurrences during the winter half-year (from October to March) are omitted from this dataset: those data are instead available via the Zwin subset of the INBO Watervogels dataset. Besides, more comprehensive bird counts within the provincial domain are published in that ZNP dataset.

2026-07-15