Breeding and wintering bird distributions in Britain and Ireland from citizen science bird atlases

Open access atlases

BTO has been working with volunteer-sourced atlas data for many decades. Now we are taking the bold step of making the full archive of distribution data freely available for anyone to use.

Incorporating fine-scale environmental heterogeneity into broad-extent models

Estimates of waterbird numbers wintering in Ireland, 2011/12–2015/16

Bird conservation and the land sharing‐sparing continuum in farmland‐dominated landscapes of lowland England

Spare or share to benefit biodiversity?

Agriculture is necessary to meet the food demands of an increasing human population, but it is also a leading threat to biodiversity, both because natural habitats are destroyed when land is converted to agricultural use and because the intensive management of existing agricultural land has negative consequences for many species. For this reason, scientists are studying strategies to mitigate the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity.

Correlates of alternative migratory strategies in western bluebirds

Hybrid expert ensembles for identifying unreliable data in citizen science

Population estimates of wintering waterbirds in Great Britain

Waders wane while geese gain

A major new study led by BTO, working with the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) partners, JNCC, RSPB and in association with WWT, provides detailed information on the importance of Great Britain for waterbirds each winter.

Improving our understanding of the distribution and status of bats within the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme area

Weak effects of geolocators on small birds: a meta‐analysis controlled for phylogeny and publication bias

Effects of individual misidentification on estimates of survival in long-term mark–resight studies

The consequences of land sparing for birds in the United Kingdom

Land sparing and bird conservation

As demand for food increases, a crucial question in conservation is how to limit the negative impacts of agriculture on biodiversity. ‘Land sparing’ has been proposed as a strategy to address this problem, with high-yield agriculture minimising the area of farmland so that other land can be spared for conservation. Research – mostly from tropical regions – suggests that most species would achieve larger populations under a land-sparing strategy than under a strategy in which lower-yielding wildlife-friendly farmland delivers food production over a larger total area.

Spatial and habitat variation in aphid, butterfly, moth and bird phenologies over the last half century

Global warming has advanced the timing of biological events, potentially leading to disruption across trophic levels.

Habitat- and species-mediated short- and long-term distributional changes in waterbird abundance linked to variation in European winter weather.

Estimating age‐dependent survival from age‐aggregated ringing data—extending the use of historical records

Advances in modelling demographic processes: The Euring 2017 Analytical Meeting

Breeding populations of Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius and Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula in the United Kingdom in 2007

A tale of two plovers

BTO research sheds light on the differing fortunes of two small UK-breeding waders.

Investigating wader breeding productivity in the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership Area using collaborative methods

Exploring relationships between land use intensity, habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity to identify and monitor areas of High Nature Value farming

Effects of tracking devices on individual birds – a review of the evidence

Tracking a research revolution

Newly-published work by BTO has reviewed the long-term patterns in the use of tracking devices on individual birds, and how the effects of the use of such devices are reported. This work highlights the continuing need for more systematic documentation of potential effects in peer-reviewed publications, to support more rigorous science and to further improve bird welfare.

The Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme: recent developments in good practice monitoring