Welcome to the British Trust for Ornithology | BTO

A world inspired by birds and informed by science.

Making birdwatching count

We empower 60,000 bird-enthusiasts to gather vital data, develop their skills and be part of a vibrant community.

Championing impartial science

We answer the most pressing questions about birds, through our thorough and impartial scientific research.

Sharing our bird knowledge

We communicate our knowledge and expertise to increase the value of birds and other wildlife for all.

Publication

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.

Publication

Associations between gamebird releases and general predators

Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges for commercial shoots may be boosting numbers of the avian predators and scavengers.

News

Support the Red Sixty Seven

Red Sixty Seven is a collaboration between 67 authors and 67 artists with a single goal: to raise funds to support conservation work aiming to reverse the declines of our most at-risk birds.

WeBS counting. Photograph by Teresa Frost

Find a project

Use our project finder to find the project that matches your level of bird expertise and the time you have available.

Start

Garden BirdWatch

Help track the changing fortunes of our garden birds alongside 12,000 other Garden BirdWatchers

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News

BTO website and survey applications - planned maintenance on 5 Feb 2020

From 9am to 6pm on Wednesday 3 February 2020 the BTO website and all online survey applications may be unavailable due to planned maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and will resume services as soon...