BirdTrack

The importance of recording using @birdtrack.bsky.social is fascinating for personal records but highly important for UK recording and data collection on species distribution and populations. #birds #science

A gander at winter geese Widespread snow across Scandinavia and northern Germany last week led thousands of geese to cross the North Sea as their feeding grounds were covered; the Hamburg area saw 40cm of snow, the biggest...

The largest flocks of European White-fronted Geese in #NorthWales since the 1980s were driven west by heavy snow in northern Germany last week. These and other sightings in @northwaleslive.bsky.social BirdNotes.

📷 @zoobirder.bsky.social #BirdingWales

www.birdnotes.wales/blog/a-gande...

Always enjoy getting these summaries of my @birdtrack.bsky.social year. Recorded more additional taxa last year and plan to add even more this year as well as adding more breeding evidence to my records.

BB eye: A birder’s guide to High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI, bird flu) virus infections have historically been most commonly associated with wild Eurasian waterfowl with...

Our article, a birder’s guide to HPAI, was published today in @britishbirds.bsky.social - it’s open access this month.

We explain how bird-flu infected seabirds in 2021/22 and the importance of citizen science to montoring future outbreaks in the wild. 🪶🧪

britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti...

You can also report dead birds for possible testing for avian influenza:

📌In England, Wales & Scotland: gov.uk/guidance/rep...

📌In Northern Ireland: daera-ni.gov.uk/services/dae...

📌In Republic of Ireland: aviancheck.apps.services.agriculture.gov.ie/report

We are receiving increased reports of dead auks, including Puffins, particularly in North East Scotland. It's quick and easy to report any dead or sick birds you find through the 'Deceased bird' function on the home page of the BirdTrack app

Photo: Puffin by Richard Selman / BTO

#ukbirding

Screengrab of my BirdTrack app stats for my January 2026 Westray Birding. It shows 90 species seen. 75 places visited around the isle. 305 submissions. 64 complete lists. A graph compares January 2026 activity to January 2025.

I only took to the @birdtrack.bsky.social app mid last year and the more I use it the more I get out of it. The stats function is great and as can be seen by the graph here, 2026 effort is much reduced cf to 2025 cos we've had utterly shite weather for a month! #WestrayBirding #PWC2026

Little Egret Population Estimates Producing population estimates for Little Egret A paper in the January 2026 issue of British Birds has described a new approach to estimating the breeding population of Little Egrets in the UK, ...

BLOG: Ian Woodward, senior research ecologist at @btobirds.bsky.social, describes how combining data from the RBBP and the BTO’s Heronries Census has improved our knowledge on the UK’s Little Egret population, as in new @britishbirds.bsky.social paper #birds #ornithology rbbp.org.uk/2026/01/30/l...

Good morning, yes we will! That should be with you shortly

Two Brent Geese walk along a shoreline.

Our latest BirdTrack migration blog is out ➡️ www.bto.org/our-work...

From the influx into Britain of White-fronted Geese to the importance of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland for Light-bellied Brent Geese, there's lots to discover! #Winterwatch

📷 Edmund Fellowes / BTO

The International Swan Census takes place this weekend, 17-18 January. If you record any Bewick's or Whooper Swans in BirdTrack, we would greatly appreciate if you could add details on the number of adults and juveniles, habitat and location pinpoint #ukbirding

Whooper Swans by Sarah Kelman / BTO

2025 ended with the biggest influx of European White-fronted Goose and Tundra Bean Goose for many years. Latest BirdTrack data show a big and sudden spike in the reporting rate in the last week of the year! #ukbirding

With colder temperatures and easterly winds we are starting to see some arrivals of White-fronted Geese and Tundra Bean Geese, as well as the smart Smew. Numbers of Smew wintering in the UK fell by 84% between 1996/97 and 2022/23 #ukbirding

Smew, by Graham Catley / BTO

The symbols evolve as more data are entered, so if you keep entering complete lists with Red Kites and Fieldfares, you may notice the symbols disappear after a while!

Hi Dave,
The symbols are based on data entered by all BirdTrack users, so this may indicate that you are seeing more than other local observers! They are also based on a radius around your location, so can be influenced by reports from other sites nearby, which may have different habitats and birds

The update also resolves a small number of other functionality issues, including fixing the sort order of lists viewed through the recent sightings map. We hope you like the improvements. Thank you for using BirdTrack and supporting our research.

It’s difficult to come up with a perfect formula for this - you might see some examples of species you think are common having a symbol suggesting they are infrequent - but the symbols are based on real data entered by the BirdTrack community and naturally evolve as more data are entered.

When you are entering a list, you will also now see symbols indicating when a species is only reported infrequently in the area where you are recording at the given time of year.

You may also receive messages from BirdTrack verifiers. You can respond to these through the app, edit the record, or discard the notification

It is still the case that it is usually only necessary to submit a record form if you were the original finder of a bird, and not if you 'twitched' it. In this case, you can simply discard the notification.

You will also receive automatically generated notifications when you enter a record of a national or county rarity species, which requires a record form to be submitted for the record to be formally accepted.

When you enter a record that is unexpected, based on either an unexpected date for a species or an unexpectedly high count, you will now receive a notification giving you the option to edit the record or discard the notification if you are sure the record is correct.

Firstly, it is now possible to view and respond to notifications in the app, rather than just through the website. If you have notifications, access them via the bell icon in the top right of the home page.

The new update to the BirdTrack app introduces several features aimed at helping us collect accurate bird data and alert you to those slip of the finger data entry errors #ukbirding

BTO Migblog – 05 Dec 2025 | BTO October is seen as the most exciting month of the year by many birders, but as I mentioned in the last blog, there are some more unusual visitors to Britain and Ireland that can turn up just as often…

New @birdtrack.bsky.social migration blog ➡️ www.bto.org/our-work/new...

We take a look back at bird migration in November and what species you should look out for in December, including the Hume’s Warbler! #Ornithology

Bioacoustics as a tool for the detection and monitoring of a scarce woodland bird – the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Excellent @britishbirds.bsky.social paper from @lesserspotnet.bsky.social et al. using passive acoustic monitoring.

LS detected at >60% of sites in southern England, most of which had no recent records. Drums/calls very few over thousands of hours. Birders' chances of an encounter clearly very low!

Reviewing the RBBP species list Reviewing the RBBP species list Mediterranean Gull, Mark Eaton The RBBP collects data and reports upon all native species with UK breeding populations of fewer than 2,000 pairs. In addition, s...

NEW BLOG - the RBBP reviews what species we should collect data on regularly. Here’s an explanation of what we consider when species are removed, and why Avocet and Mediterranean Gull are staying on our list, for now rbbp.org.uk/2025/11/25/r...

While in Scotland this week, I lucked in on a small flock of Bohemian Waxwings in a stunning coastal location near Montrose. Any encounter with these Scandinavian wanderers is guaranteed to brighten your day. My 360th species in the British Isles this year. Pic: @lainy.bsky.social #ukbirding

Latest BirdTrack data show Woodcock arriving en masse over the the last fortnight. Sadly, Woodcock are prone to colliding with buildings while they migrate. If you find a dead Woodcock in these circumstances, please add the record to BirdTrack or email details to woodcock@bto.org

#ukbirding