Bird Atlas 2007-11

The relationship between BirdTrack and Bird Atlas 2007-11

BirdTrack is a long-term bird listing and recording project organized by the BTO, RSPB and BirdWatch Ireland. It focuses on tracking patterns of migration and movements throughout the year at the scale of Britain and Ireland, using the proportion of lists containing a given species as a measure of species occurrence that controls for recording effort. Migration patterns are presented as maps and tables that are updated automatically each night. In the medium-term we also expect that BirdTrack will contribute useful data for long-term monitoring for scarce species that remain reasonably widespread but are too rare to be well covered by sampling schemes such as the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey. In addition to lists, observers can also submit any other records to BirdTrack. These supplementary data provide valuable additional information for things such as early and late dates, maps and site lists. BirdTrack also provides a comprehensive facility that observers can use to store and analyse their own bird records, with automatic forwarding of records to County Bird Recorders (with the observer’s permission).

Atlases have provided a definitive record of the status of all bird populations in Britain and Ireland at approximately 20-year intervals since 1970. The 2007-11 Atlas, organised by BTO, BirdWatch Ireland and the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, aims to provide complete coverage of Britain and Ireland to map distributions of all bird species. In this respect it complements BirdTrack which can only cover a sample of sites. The 2007-11 Atlas will produce distribution and relative abundance maps for both the breeding season and winter periods. To fulfil these aims there are two complementary fieldwork elements: Roving Recorders and Timed Tetrad Visits. The former aim to amass lists of all species breeding or wintering in each 10-km square throughout Britain and Ireland. The latter involve timed counts from a sample of tetrads (2km x 2km squares) to provide information on relative abundance at the 10-km square level.

Both the Atlas and BirdTrack projects provide data that are important for the future conservation of our bird populations and the environment more generally. We already know that both bird distributions and movement patterns are changing in response to climate change and changes in land use. Whilst they differ in their objectives, survey work undertaken for one can make a valuable contribution to the other. Information submitted to BirdTrack will be used in the Atlas and Roving Records submitted to the Atlas will be available to BirdTrack. You need only enter your data to one project or the other.

We hope that active birdwatchers will be able to support one or both of these projects. The web sites have been designed to make it as easy as possible for you to do so, and for you to move seamlessly between the two sites if you wish. If you already contribute regularly to BirdTrack, please continue entering your records into BirdTrack as usual. If you are an Atlas Roving Recorder who is compiling comprehensive lists of species, either for individual tetrads or 10-km squares, you are encouraged to submit these as ‘Complete Lists’ in BirdTrack. To participate in Timed Tetrad Visits for the Atlas, you will need to register with your Atlas Regional Organiser (see the Atlas site for details). Timed tetrad counts from registered observers should be submitted via the Atlas website.