British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)

The Big Bird Race is back! 😀 Bring your friends and family together for a fun day of birding with BTO's Big Bird Race! 🐦 Just choose any 4-hour time slot from Saturday 24 May to midday on Monday 26 May ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dpp98kFK This FREE event is organised by our BTO Youth Volunteers to share and celebrate our love of birds, with the aim of bringing people together across generations to share the joy of birding. There are prizes to be won and amazing memories to be made. And the best bit: you can take part anywhere in the UK! 😀

BTO Cuckoo update 📣 Cuach Cores is back! 😀 November was the last time we received a signal from him before he suddenly re-appeared on 8 April in western Algeria! He is now crossing the Sahara in earnest! 🌞 This time last year, he was still in Nigeria, not arriving in Europe until the end of April, when he touched down in Montpelier, France. Which route will he take this spring? Hafren powered on and crossed the Mediterranean overnight on 5 April. He headed straight inland, passing over Granada and on into central Spain. He is currently feeding up at the Puente Nuevo Reservoir in the province of Córdoba, not too far from Cuckoo Wilfrid! 🌍 Meanwhile Sayaan remains in Ghana, with the last signal received from his tag on 1 April. Follow BTO Cuckoo migrations and sponsor a bird on our website ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dmyRsmYQ

🎤 Resource Spotlight: Acoustic monitoring and Automated Identification Many species—especially nocturnal and elusive ones—are difficult to monitor using traditional survey methods. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) offers a scalable, low-cost solution, and a recent project supported by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme has advanced its application in restoration. 🔍 New tools for restoration projects With support from the Programme, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has expanded its Acoustic Pipeline, integrating automated classifiers for bats, owls, curlew, bush-crickets, and small mammals across Europe. These tools allow: • Automated species identification from uploaded recordings • Robust and transparent biodiversity data analysis • Support for researchers & citizen scientists to validate findings 🌍 Real-world impact The project has already processed 500,000+ recordings from five Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme restoration sites, helping projects understand how wildlife responds to restoration efforts. 📊 What’s next? The next phase will: • Make acoustic monitoring more accessible—so restoration projects can conduct long-term biodiversity surveys without specialist expertise. • Develop meaningful biodiversity metrics—helping projects assess how species respond to restoration over time. • Create an online tool for data processing—allowing projects to generate biodiversity metrics from classified acoustic data. • Introduce a semi-automated reporting template—so projects can easily interpret and share results. • Provide tailored guidelines—offering survey design recommendations and case studies from Cairngorms Connect, Greater Côa Valley, and the Carpathian Mountains. 🔗 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dNPt6MyG 📸 Chris Damant

New project alert! 📢 Can you help us count Birds in Greenspaces? 🐦🌳 Sign up ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dht3ju82 This pilot survey is for people who enjoy watching birds, whether experienced birders or new to nature! It’s flexible too so you can take part anywhere in the UK. 📝 What do we mean by greenspaces? These are public-access spaces in and around built-up areas, such as parks, playing fields and cemeteries. By helping us monitor bird populations that use these areas, we hope to show their importance nationally for nature and people. 🦆🦋

Remember to join us on 10th April to discover more about our Together Through Nature project. The panel discussion will be online from 1pm - 2:30pm where we'll share learnings from the project. 🐦🌱 Book a place ➡️ https://lnkd.in/diXGdAab Civil Society Consulting CIC

Learn to recognise widespread UK songbirds in summer by their songs and calls in our Bird Sound ID in Summer sessions. Book now ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dekyRNxb

Join us for a talk from author James Parry about The Reverend Bird: the Gilbert White of the Broads at 6pm on Wednesday 23 April at our BTO HQ. £5 per person. Book a place ➡️ https://bit.ly/RevBirdTalk Born in 1857, Maurice Charles Hilton Bird became one of the most outstanding natural historians of his generation, and served as the rector for Brunstead (a village in the Broads) for half a century. Author James Parry worked closely with the Bird family on a book that celebrates his work, analysing material from his remarkable archive, one of the most important of its type in the UK and which has never been revealed before. They’ll be a chance to view material from the archive during the evening with our BTO Archivist. 📖

New Goshawk research! We fitted GPS-tags to 29 chicks across Norfolk, Suffolk and Gloucestershire to discover their movements. Here’s what we found. ⬇️ 📝Young birds in their first winter settled outside of their parents’ forest breeding habitat, and occupied a small range of approximately 5km by 5km. These ranges were often mixed, containing open farmland near forest edges, or farmland entirely. 📝Male birds favoured farmland. Being smaller than females, this could explain the habitat differences between the sexes, due to the prey males can take that is more available in this habitat. 📝 As the young Goshawks matured, their habitat use shifted towards greater amounts of forest. Recovering from near extinction due to persecution in the early 20th century, the UK Goshawk population is around 1,200 breeding pairs, and confined largely to forests. The short dispersal distances of young birds from this study indicates that range expansion out of forests might take time. However, with young birds’ ability to take advantage of non-forest habitats it suggests further expansion of the population is likely. Visit our website for the full story ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dm9wPwj9

📢 We need your help to record Dartford Warbler for the Heathland Birds Survey. Find a priority survey site near you ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dXbuzv3Z Surveys for Dartford Warbler have started so we’re looking for volunteers to fill survey gaps, especially for sites in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Wiltshire and Wales. Can you help and share with the birding community in your area? We’re also looking for volunteers to monitor Woodlark and Nightjar. The survey will help determine the current status of key species across the UK and Channel Islands, and is run in partnership with RSPB and funded by Natural England. Help monitor birds near you by surveying a site in your local area ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dXbuzv3Z Thank you! 📷 Dartford Warbler by Philip Croft/BTO

Listen to the latest episode of Golden Grenades podcast to hear from BTO's Dawn Balmer about her inspiring career in ornithology overseeing long-term schemes and projects. Have a listen ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dKCNSYqw