BirdTrack & Bird Atlas 2007-2011
BirdTrack is a long-term bird recording project organised by the BTO on behalf of BTO, RSPB, BirdWatch Ireland and the Scottish Ornithologists' Club. 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. 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. Bird Atlas 2007–11 will map distributions of bird species across all of Britain and Ireland, and will produce distribution and relative abundance maps for both the breeding season and winter periods.
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 changes in climate and 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 Atlas records are available for BirdTrack analysis. Any records you submitted to the Atlas are now available for you to explore using the Explore My Records tool in BirdTrack.
We are very grateful to the many active birdwatchers who have supported the Atlas, and we now urge you to make the switch to BirdTrack, if you haven't already done so. If you were an Atlas Roving Recorder who compiled comprehensive lists of species, either for individual tetrads or 10-km squares, you are now encouraged to submit your regular birdwatching records as ‘Complete Lists’ in BirdTrack.
