About our courses
Learning about birds and improving your birding skills
Birding is a hugely rewarding and enjoyable pastime; from bringing further enjoyment to a walk in the countryside, through to a life-long career. Being able to identify the birds that you see and hear about you greatly increases your connection with nature and enables you to give something back and make a real, direct difference for conservation by making a note of your sightings through one of the many BTO surveys on offer.
We take you through all stages: from learning to identify common birds by sight, to increasing your repertoire of species, then on to identification by sound. We provide a series of free online videos to help separate confusion species (see here), and then help you to take your birding to the next level by discovering what is involved in surveys and offering survey-specific workshops to hone your skills to perfection. We also offer professional and bespoke bird ID and bird surveying training.
There is a survey for everyone, regardless of your level of experience, bird identification skill and confidence and so all of our courses and workshops, including bird ID ones, include sections on surveying and guiding you towards the survey that suits you best.
All of our courses comprise indoor taught sessions and outdoor practicals, putting what we have learned into practice. There will be some outdoor elements regardless of the time of year/weather.
You do not have to be a BTO member to attend a course, workshop or to take part in a BTO survey.
your confidence and enjoyment of
bird surveying
Online training courses
Online training courses cover a variety of topics, including the identification of songbirds, waterbirds, waders, gulls and raptors. These courses involve weekly online sessions of 90–100 minutes, with a trainer:participant ratio of about 1:30. Participants' microphones are muted during the sessions but there is a large interactive component, using chat messaging, polls and non-verbal signals to your webcam. The live sessions are complemented by supported self-study exercises which participants are encouraged to complete between the sessions. We place a strong emphasis on providing tools and techniques that will help you to continue your learning after the course.
In-person training courses
As an extention of our online training courses, we run half-day sessions for groups of up to 12 people. These focus on the species and approaches to identification covered in the online sessions and are a great opportunity to put theory into practise. These are currently only being advertised to people who have participated in or registered for the associated online course and live within a 75 mile radius of the venue.
All courses are led by experienced BTO staff and members, all of whom have extensive experience of BTO surveys and the different methodologies that are used, as well as all being keen and experienced birders and trainers. This combination of skills allows the leaders to gently encourage and direct participants in bird identification and surveying as well as creating a great environment for participants to learn from each other's experiences. Practical sessions are carried out in small groups, so that there is a high level of tutor to participant help.
We do not plan to offer any residential courses for the foreseeable future but will instead continue to offer online training opportunities, along with an increasing number of half-day field sessions.
More details on courses, venues and prices.
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