Press releases
A tale of three wagtails; familiar species in decline
August 2014
The latest Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) annual report shows all three UK breeding wagtail species are in long-term decline...
Welsh House Sparrows buck the trend
August 2014
House Sparrows, despite being in long-term decline across the UK, have increased in Wales by 96% between 1995 and 2012, as revealed in the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) annual report...
Linnet low in Northern Ireland
August 2014
Linnets suffered last year with the latest results from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) revealing a fall of 37% between 2012 and 2013 in Northern Ireland...
Aerial feeders in Scotland
August 2014
They say that “one swallow doesn’t make a summer”, but there’s no doubt that the arrival in Scotland of our aerial feeders – swallows, martins and swifts – from south of the Sahara in Africa is greeted with joy by many people...
Robins take a break from gardens thanks to extremely mild weather
August 2014
Last winter, the British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO) Garden Bird Feeding Survey saw very low numbers of birds using garden feeding stations because of the mild weather and abundance of natural food...
Wading birds feeling the strain on Northern Ireland’s estuaries
July 2014
Multitudes of wintering birds on an estuary form one of the most magical wildlife spectacles each winter in the UK, but this scene is changing...
Mixed fortunes for wading birds on Welsh estuaries
July 2014
Multitudes of wintering birds on an estuary form one of the most magical wildlife spectacles each winter in the UK, but this scene is changing...
Wading birds feeling the strain on Scotland’s estuaries
July 2014
Multitudes of wintering birds on an estuary form one of the most magical wildlife spectacles each winter in the UK, but this scene is changing...
Wading birds feeling the strain on England’s estuaries
July 2014
Multitudes of wintering birds on an estuary form one of the most magical wildlife spectacles each winter in the UK, but this scene is changing...
Wading birds feeling the strain on UK estuaries
July 2014
Multitudes of wintering birds on an estuary form one of the most magical wildlife spectacles each winter in the UK, but this scene is changing...
Norfolk Bat Survey honoured for inspiring the county
July 2014
At an award ceremony at the Abbey Conference Centre, Norwich, Dr Stuart Newson, Hazel Evans and Joe Rayner, the driving force behind the innovative Norfolk Bat Survey were presented with an award for inspiring others...
Chris the Cuckoo waves goodbye to Britain again
July 2014
Back in 2011, a Cuckoo in Suffolk was fitted with a satellite tag by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)to track his movements...
Birds and Climate Change - A global review of the impact of climate change on birds
June 2014
Climate change is likely to add to the many existing pressures on bird populations...
Cash for Cuckoos
June 2014
Britain’s cuckoos are £300 better off, thanks to support from an initiative to get people out and about in their local area to watch birds...
Good spring for Cornwall's Greenfinches?
June 2014
Despite the fact that they are declining across the country, Cornwall’s Greenfinches seem to have had a very good spring...
The oldest of its kind
June 2014
The oldest known Buzzard in the wild has clocked out at 28 years, 1 month and 11 days, breaking the previous record by nearly three years...
Fifteen winged saviours take to the air
June 2014
In a In a bid to bid to tackle the worrying decline in Cuckoo numbers, 15 satellite-tagged individuals are to take to the air during the next week, and begin transmitting information of their incredible journeys to researchers at the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology)...
Two globe-trotting Cuckoos return to the Broads
May 2014
Having spent the winter 3,000 miles away in the Congo Rainforest, two special Cuckoos have made it safely back to the Norfolk Broads...
Satellite-tagged Cuckoo returns to Scotland for third summer
May 2014
BB the Cuckoo is doing Scotland proud...
To feed or not to feed - that is the question
May 2014
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Garden BirdWatch (GBW) team often get asked during the summer whether, or not, to continue feeding garden birds...
Famous Cuckoo makes it back to the UK against all the odds
April 2014
In May 2011 the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) fitted a satellite tag to a Cuckoo in an attempt to help find answers behind the dramatic decline of this iconic species here in the UK...
A novel approach to monitoring bats
April 2014
A new study, just published in the journal British Wildlife, Newson, S...
Scientists hold their breath for the return of a very special Cuckoo called Chris
April 2014
Having clocked up over 45,000 miles and his tag having sent around 30,000 messages back to scientists in the UK, Chris the cuckoo is set to return to the East Anglian countryside for his fourth successive summer wearing a unique satellite tag...
Garden wildlife springs into action early
April 2014
As the latest results from the British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO) Garden BirdWatch reveal, much of our garden wildlife has got going extraordinarily early this year...
In a changing climate it's a dog eat dog world
April 2014
New study demonstrates that climate change disrupts natural relationships between species Part II of the IPCC fifth assessment report, published at the end of March, reported that climate change is altering species’ distributions and populations with high confidence...
All of Britain and Ireland’s birds mapped digitally for the first time
April 2014
For the first time ever, over 3,500 maps showing the distribution, range change and abundance for over five hundred different species of bird that have been recorded in Britain and Ireland since 1968 are freely available online...
What a difference a year makes; early nesting in 2014
April 2014
Birds attempting to breed during the spring of 2013 were faced with freezing conditions as March temperatures plummeted way below the national average...
Robo-sandals: National charity unveils GPS-guided footwear for birdwatchers
April 2014
Did you see this story yesterday (1st April 2014)...
Dedicated volunteers count birds for two decades
March 2014
Over 150 people have recorded the birds on their own patch of countryside for twenty years in the name of science...