We harness the skills and passion of birdwatchers to advance our understanding of ornithology and produce impartial science - communicated clearly for the benefit of birds and people.
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A creative collaboration, bringing together two of Britain’s wild bird charities and leading writers and artists, was launched on 16 January 2020. Titled ‘Red Sixty Seven’, the project seeks to...
2019 has flown by and you have been able to follow our work on our website and social media, as well as through BTO News and other publications. There are too many stories to be told, but we have...
Andy Clements, BTO's Chief Executive, looks at how BTO can engage new audiences.
A Short-eared Owl, fitted with a satellite tag whilst breeding in Scotland, has been tracked to Morocco. Researchers from BTO Scotland have been developing methods for surveying Short-eared Owls in...
The latest update of the Indicator for Terrestrial Breeding Birds in Scotland has just been released. These official statistics, published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), track the abundance of...
Amy Hall discusses how BTO can better provide opportunities for the next generation of ornithologists.
By 2020, the BTO will be in its second year of an exciting 5-year landscape restoration program in Belarus and Ukraine – ‘Wilderness without borders: creating one of the largest natural...
David Noble takes a sober look at the latest State of Nature Report.
State of Nature 2019 presents an overview of how the country’s wildlife is faring, looking back over nearly 50 years of monitoring to see how nature has changed in the UK, its Crown Dependencies...
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Henrietta Pringle reveals the work behind a recent paper on gamebirds and predation.
Every year, 41-50 million non-native gamebirds (Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge) are released in the UK. Fewer than half these birds are shot, meaning there is potentially a large food resource...
Thanks to the BTO's Cuckoo Tracking Project we are learning more about Cuckoo migration. There are still important questions to answer, so we have fitted four more Cuckoos with satellite tags...
BTO science contributes to our understanding of future scenarios, and informing policies and conservation management strategies to help species adapt.
Together, the UK’s gardens cover a larger area than all National Nature Reserves combined and arguably form our most important nature reserve. As towns and city become more densely populated and...
The study’s authors extracted information from advertising in the RSPB’s Birds magazine over a 40 year period to show how the number and variety of bird food products has risen during this...
The latest BTO/RSPB/JNCC Wetland Bird Survey report has been published, covering the period July 2017 to June 2018. Explore all the data and trends, including waterbird totals for all WeBS sites...
Andy Clements, BTO Chief Executive, sets out BTO’s position regarding the current debate about wildlife licensing.
The new BBS report shows the impact that severe 2018 weather may have had on some of our birds. The Beast from the East hit some of our smaller resident birds whilst strong desert winds hampered...
Phil Atkinson explains the technology behind tracking.
The work gives revised population estimates for 98 different species that winter in Great Britain, using data collected by many thousand birdwatchers to calculate either the average peak winter...
BTO research is helping to shape the modern farmed landscape by informing agri-environment schemes.
One of our most treasured songbirds, the Spotted Flycatcher, is disappearing. Once considered a common garden nesting species, the Spotted Flycatcher is now a bird that many people are willing to...
It has been argued, however, that wildlife-friendly farming might be more appropriate away from tropical deforestation ‘frontiers’. In the UK, for example, some species which depend on large...
Can we move and inspire people with passionate, powerful communications without compromising our impartiality and scientific credentials?
The reasons underlying these changes have been a mystery. However, we are now in position to begin to understand them with the BTO Short-eared Owl tracking project. With further research we will be...
The first breeding atlas – the first national bird atlas anywhere in the world - conducted during 1968–72, was described at the time as “a huge step forward in our knowledge of the...
Steve Portugal explains why and how birds undertake long and perilous migratory journeys.
