Capturing data in the field with citizen science and species expertise
Browse the range of active BTO projects requiring support. Learn what they contribute to science, and how to participate.
Bird Ringing Scheme
Bird ringing generates information on the survival, productivity and movements of birds, helping us to understand why populations are changing.
Contributions & findings
- Winter wren populations show adaptation to local climate
- Flexibility in the timing of post-breeding moult in British passerines
- Latitudinal gradients in the productivity of European migrant warblers have not shifted northwards during a period of climate change
- Integrating demographic data: towards a framework for monitoring wildlife populations at large spatial scales
BirdTrack
BirdTrack is a free and convenient way of storing your bird records online. BirdTrack lets you keep up to date with what others are seeing, view the latest trends, and contribute your data to BTO science.
Contributions & findings
- Long-term changes in the migration phenology of UK breeding birds detected by large-scale citizen science recording schemes
- Robustness of simple avian population trend models for semi-structured citizen science data is species-dependent
- Estimating species distributions from spatially biased citizen science data
Breeding Bird Survey
BBS monitors the population changes of 118 breeding bird species across the UK thanks to the dedication of almost 3,000 volunteers who survey their randomly selected 1-km square each spring.
Contributions & findings
Garden BirdWatch
Help with research into garden wildlife by joining our Garden BirdWatch community
Garden Wildlife Health
Tell us about sick and diseased wildlife found in your garden. Garden BirdWatch participants can also add observations when entering their usual GBW counts.
Heronries Census
Annual survey of all Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Cormorants and scarcer herons nesting in the UK
Contributions & findings
- The latest Grey Heron population trends from the Heronries Census are discussed on the Grey Heron page in the BTO's BirdTrends report.
- The modelled annual population estimates for the UK, now spanning more than 80 years, show a long-term increase.
Nest Record Scheme
Nest Record Scheme participants gather vital information on the breeding success of Britain's birds by following the progress of individual nests.
Contributions & findings
Nesting Neighbours
Do you think you might have birds nesting in your garden? Could you take a closer look and find out? By monitoring nests through the breeding season you could gather hugely valuable information.
Norfolk Bat Survey
Norfolk Bat Survey offers anyone in Norfolk the opportunity to borrow automated equipment to record bats in the local area.
Contributions & findings
- Large-scale citizen science improves assessment of risk posed by wind farms to bats in southern Scotland
- Potential for coupling the monitoring of Bush-crickets with established large-scale acoustic monitoring of bats
- A novel citizen science approach for large-scale standardised monitoring of bat activity and distribution, evaluated in eastern England
- Bat-monitoring: a novel approach
Volunteer Mountain Hare Survey
This project aims to gather much-needed information about Mountain Hares in Scotland. Volunteers record hares and (optionally) upland birds via the Mammal Mapper app or with paper field recording sheets.
Wader Calendar
The Wader Calendar is a quick and easy way for farmers to record waders on their farm and contribute to a national monitoring scheme.
Waterways Breeding Bird Survey
The Waterways Breeding Bird Survey is an annual survey of breeding birds along rivers and canals.
Wetland Bird Survey
The Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) monitors non-breeding waterbirds in the UK.
Contributions & findings
- 3.75 million waterbirds are counted for WeBS each year.
- WeBS produces annual indices for 110 waterbird species or populations
- Species totals published annually for over 2,700 sites as open data on the WeBS Report Online
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