Bird Atlas Mapstore

View Bird Atlas Mapstore

What is the Mapstore?

The Bird Atlas Mapstore brings together all of the maps from the breeding and wintering atlas projects carried out in partnership by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), BirdWatch Ireland and the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC). These projects covered the 1968–72, 1988–91 and 2008–11 breeding seasons and the 1981/82–1983/84 and 2007/08–2010/11 winters. The Bird Atlas Mapstore just provides the maps, the printed bird atlases provide the context to help you intepret them. 

FAQs

Why are there more maps in the Bird Atlas Mapstore than in the printed atlases?

Being online, the Bird Atlas Mapstore isn’t limited by the space constraints that you find in a printed book. Because of this, we are able to present virtually all of the maps for all of the species that were recorded during atlas fieldwork. The nature of the Bird Atlas Mapstore also means that you can ‘slide’ between the different maps in a series to see how distributions have changed over time.



Screen shot of the Mapstore

Is the Bird Atlas Mapstore free?

Yes. There is no charge for accessing Bird Atlas Mapstore or for viewing the maps. We want to make this information available to a wide audience so that the vast amounts of data collected by atlas volunteers can be viewed by anyone with access to the Internet.

Why should I buy the Bird Atlas 2007–11 book when all the maps are freely available on Maptore?

The maps available on Bird Atlas Mapstore lack the scientific interpretation that appears in each of the printed books and we would urge you to buy the books to understand how the patterns of range and distribution change have been interpreted by expert scientists. All the distribution and range statistics are presented in the book and are not available on Bird Atlas Mapstore. You can buy a copy of Bird Atlas 2007–11 from here. 

Can I reuse the maps?

Maps must not be reused or reproduced without prior permission from BTO. Anyone wishing to use these maps and related data should complete a data request form. 

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