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- Leicestershire and Rutland are neighbouring counties in the English Midlands. Rutland is the smallest county in England and its administration was amalgamated with its larger neighbour between 1974 and 1997. Since 1941, the two counties have shared a single bird-recording organisation, the Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society (LROS). Since 1 January 1941, the date of the foundation of the LROS, 290 bird species have been recorded in the counties in an apparently natural wild state at least once. A further nine were documented prior to that date, but have not been recorded subsequently. There are nine introduced species that maintain themselves without necessary recourse to further introduction. The total list for the LROS recording area is therefore 308 species. Leicestershire and Rutland are landlocked lowland counties and most of the birds are typical of English farmland habitat. Many coastal, oceanic and highland birds are absent or rare, and there are few rare vagrants compared to coastal areas. The construction of two large reservoirs, Eyebrook Reservoir in 1940 and Rutland Water (England's largest reservoir) in 1976, has provided freshwater environments enabling many aquatic birds to thrive. The list below is based on the LROS checklist, using BOU species names, and the status descriptors in the accounts have the following meanings:
* Very rare: fewer than ten records ever
* Rare: more than ten records ever, but less than annual
* Scarce: fewer than ten birds occurring or pairs breeding annually
* Uncommon: 10–100 birds occurring or pairs breeding annually
* Fairly common: 100–1,000 birds occurring or pairs breeding annually
* Common: 1,000–10,000 birds occurring or pairs breeding annually
* Abundant: more than 10,000 birds occurring or pairs breeding annually In the list below, "BBRC" means that a full description of nationally rare species is required for acceptance of the record by the British Birds Rarities Committee, and "LROS" indicates that a description of county rarities is required for acceptance of the record by the LROS Records Committee. Photographs of birds illustrating the list are not all taken within the locality. (en)
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