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Garden Bird Feeding Survey (GBFS)

This is a special winter-only project which has been running since 1970. Each winter, 250 gardeners record birds that visit feeders during October to March. The gardens are chosen by the project organiser according to their location and type and are recruited from BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch participants who have indicated particular interest in, and aptitude for, taking on additional bird recording activities. Because this is such a small project, it is funded from BTO resources and hence no contribution to costs is required. However, this does mean that participation is limited to only 250 gardeners.

Each year a few participants drop out and suitable replacement gardens are identified in early summer from among the membership of Garden BirdWatch and invited by letter to consider joining the GBFS project. If you have specifically enquired about GBFS your letter will be held on file and your kind offer of help will be considered when the next batch of joiners are invited. However, as the numbers involved are very small, and because the new gardens have to be selected to match those that drop out, we can only accommodate a very few new participants each year.

The results of the project are published annually in BTO News. The most recent results can be viewed as a PDF by clicking here.