Our Trainers

BTO are fortunate to have a team of superb trainers. All our courses are taught by people who understand the challenges of bird identification and doing structured surveys. Our trainers all have many years experience of birding and bird surveying, as volunteers and professionals. We offer training on a range of subjects, online and in person.

To find out more about the individual trainers in our UK-wide Training team, read our mini-biographies below:

Nick Moran

Nick taught Biology at secondary schools in Suffolk, Shanghai (China) and Abu Dhabi (UAE) from 2000 to 2009, when he then joined the BTO Surveys team as BirdTrack Organiser. After eight years working with birders, data users, partner organisations and colleagues throughout BTO, Nick was appointed Training Manager. This is providing a perfect opportunity for him to combine his life-long interest in birds with his own background in education, and passion for helping others to develop their birding and surveying skills

See Nick’s BTO staff page for more info.

Jenny Donelan

Jenny taught university-level students in Norfolk during 2016–20, covering a wide variety of subjects from statistical modelling and extracting DNA to field sampling, bird ringing and taxonomy. This ignited Jenny’s passion for teaching and enthusing others, and after a few years working for conservation NGOs and as an ecological consultant, she joined BTO's Training team in 2022. As a Training Officer, Jenny combines her love of birds with her passion for teaching others, inspiring them to develop their confidence in bird identification and participation in volunteer surveys.

See Jenny’s BTO staff page for more info.

Rob Jaques

Rob was a fieldworker for various universities, assisting with a range of projects studying birds, pollinators and insect populations. He joined BTO in 2018 as part of the Garden BirdWatch team, where he developed training courses in bumblebee and small brown garden bird ID, and wrote articles on identifying birds and other taxa, alongside reporting on the changing fortunes of garden wildlife. He became a Training Officer in 2024, a role through which he continues to use his passion for natural history to grow other people's enthusiasm and knowledge about birds. 

See Rob's BTO staff page for more info. 


Additionally, experienced staff in our Country Offices run training with a focus on boosting survey participation in particular parts of the UK:

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