Birds in Greenspaces Pilot 2025
By getting involved in our pilot this spring you can help us by providing valuable feedback on our methods as well as key information on the greenspaces near you and the issues affecting them.
Ways to take part
The pilot is UK-wide and anyone can take part. There are two ways you can record birds for the project - take a look at the table below to see what’s required for each of the methods:
Structured survey |
Casual recording |
|
| Able to ID common birds | No experience necessary! | |
| 2 or 3 visits of around 1 hour | No minimum time required! | |
| Early to mid-morning | Any time of day! | |
| Recommended | No binoculars necessary! | |
| Avoid heavy wind or rain or other unsuitable weather conditons | ||
| Smartphone OR pen and paper form | ||
Which greenspaces are included
Greenspaces are public-access areas of land found in and around built-up areas, and for the purposes of the pilot we will be including the following: public parks and gardens, playing fields, religious grounds and cemeteries, as well as other public open spaces. Birds in Greenspaces aims to cover a wide range of greenspace types to get a complete picture of different management styles, those which can be recommended, and those which are less beneficial for birds and people.
Through pilot feedback we hope to refine our site list and maps to ensure we incude as many public access greenspaces as we can, in order to allow as many people as possible to engage with nature in a space near them and collect data that can provide a picture of the network of greenspaces at local level and beyond.
Target Pilot Locations
In addition to UK wide data collection, we will be focusing pilot efforts in 6 of towns and cities across the UK: Cambridge, Derry-Londonderry, Glasgow, Hull, Newport (Wales), and Thetford. These locations will give us the opportunity to collect important feedback on other project elements, to ensure we include as many greenspaces and people as possible in the main survey year.
We want to know where and which greenspaces are being chosen, in order to help us identify peaks and gaps in coverage for the main survey in 2026. To help us find out, we are asking volunteers planning to carry out the structured survey at the above target locations only to tell us where they will be carrying out their structured survey. If this applies to you, please click the button below to let us know your chosen greenspace(s):
How to register
Step 1 - Register for MyBTO and BirdTrack
Click on the button below and follow the steps to register for MyBTO and BirdTrack. Alternatively you can register directly in the BirdTrack mobile phone app.
Register for MyBTO and BirdTrack
Step 2 - Sign-up for Birds in Greenspaces
Click on the button below to sign-up, and you're ready to get started!
Sign-up for Birds in Greenspaces
Pilot resources
Find further information on the project, as well as everything you will need to get started on our resources page.
Feedback
Collecting feedback is a key element of the pilot work, and will ensure the project is as succesful as possible and runs as smoothly as possible in 2026. Feedback forms will be available from May, here on the Birds in Greenspaces Pilot 2025 webpage.
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