To become a Ringing Trainee, you need to have found a Trainer who has agreed to train you. The Find-a-Trainer map shows you the location of all the Trainers who are currently taking on new trainees. To access the Find-a-Trainer map, you must have a MyBTO account (this is free and does not mean you are a member of BTO, but you can join later if you would like to).

If you already have a MyBTO account:

• Log in to MyBTO
• Then look for Bird Ringing Scheme under "Sign Up for Projects" and click "Register".

If you don't have a MyBTO account:

• Create a MyBTO account - it's free
• Then look for Bird Ringing Scheme under "Sign Up for Projects" and click "Register".

You will then need to read and agree to the Terms and Conditions.

Once you have agreed to the Terms and Conditions, you will need to complete a set of questions about your interest in ringing. Your answers to these questions will be sent to the Trainer(s) you contact. You don't have to answer these questions straight away, you can come back to them later. But you'll need to answer them before you can contact a Trainer.

When you are ready to answer the questions, you will be shown additional information and conditions relating to participating in the Bird Ringing Scheme. If you are happy to continue, please select ‘Yes’ in the dropdown menu under ‘Additional terms agreed’. Once you confirm that you are over the age of 18, you will be taken to the questions. 

Please note: If you are under 18, please email ringing.licensing@bto.org because we will need to direct you to a Trainer who has been approved to train people under the age of 18.

To help you prepare, here are the questions:

1. Are you over 18
2. Why do you want to ring birds?
3. Are there any species group you are particularly interested in learning to ring?
4. Do you have any experience of ringing or of handling birds?
5. How would you rate your bird identification skills?
6. What transport options do you have access to?
7. How often do you think you would be able to attend ringing sessions?
8. How would you rate your health and mobility?
9. Are you likely to be based in your current area of residence for some time?

After you have completed the questions you will then be taken to the Find-a-Trainer map, where you can find a Trainer in your area. If you can see a red pin, this indicates your current location, based on information from your web browser. Zoom in to the area you're interested in and click on the blue pins to see the name of the Trainer and what training they can provide. Some Trainers will only be able to train for specific species groups e.g. Owls and Raptors. The green circles indicate that more than one Trainer may be available in that location.

After you have located a suitable Trainer, click on the orange ‘Contact’ button. You will be taken to a page containing an email to the Trainer you have selected. The answers you provided to the questions are pre-populated and you can edit the start of the email to include additional information if you wish to. 

If you don’t want to contact a Trainer immediately, you can find the map again inside your MyBTO account; the link is located in the bottom of the menu on the left hand side of the page.

Please note: to give the Trainer time to respond to you, you can only contact one Trainer every two weeks.

If you have any questions about this process, please email ringing.licensing@bto.org and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.