Say hi to the birds this autumn

With COVID-19 meaning we are all spending almost, if not, all of our time at home, it is the perfect opportunity to become acquainted with your birdy neighbours. Birds in Backyards surveys can be submitted at any time, and as often as you like. Your data tells us how our urban birds are doing and how our gardens, and our own behaviour in those gardens can impact on the birds visiting. 

Our free webinars are now full! Missed a spot? Don't worry, you can read the instructions or watch the video here - and we will have a recorded webinar for you soon so stay tuned.

Even though we are not, birds are on the move!

Autumn is a season of migration, cooling temperatures (for the most part) and with most of us stuck at home, it give us another excuse to get out into our backyards and survey birds. Our Birds in Backyards Autumn Survey runs from March to April with a focus on what unusual or unexpected birds are turning up in your backyard?

This fire season was unprecedented and many of our bird communities have lost refuge and resources, pushing them to their limits. There have been accounts of unusual birds turning up in unexpected places or at the extremes of their range and we want to know more about these occurrences.

When you complete a survey in our Birdata portal, leave a comment in the notes section to flag when a bird is a really unusual visitor to your garden - maybe it is one you have never seen before, or is showing up earlier or later than you would usually expect them. This kind of information is hard for us to find so the input from our dedicated surveyors and citizen scientists can really have an impact on our research. Getting started is easy.

What if I don't know a Pipit from a Pardalote?

You don't have to know the names of all your birds to take part. The Birdata portal and app will automatically give you a list of birds (with photos) known to be in your area and you can select from that list. The more surveys you do, the more accurate that list becomes. You can of course type in the names of any other birds who are not in that list - use our Bird Finder to help identify them.

How do I submit my surveys?

1. If you don't have a Birdata account, sign up for one today. Then read the instructions or watch the video.

2. Go to the Birdata portal or download the Birdata app

3. Select 'Birds in Backyards' from the program list and locate your garden on the map

4. Fill in some details about your garden - take a 'birds eye view'... and tell us what your space is like. You only have to do this once (unless something changes in your garden)

5. Spend either one block of 20 mins recording which birds visit your garden OR keep a record over a week of all the birds you see and fill in the survey

6. There are options to add photos, give us more details (if the bird is something unusual in your garden, put this in the notes), record any breeding info or aggressive bird behaviour if you want to

7. Submit and enjoy!

Annual Competition

Don't forget our major prize for the year - if you complete at least one survey per season (that’s Summer 2019/20, Autumn 2020, Winter 2020 & Spring 2020) you will go into the draw to win a pair of brand new Nikon binoculars (worth $249) to take with you on all your birding adventures! We also give out prizes for each seasonal survey as well.

A quick refresher of the rules for the annual competition:

All surveys must be completed within the Birds in Backyards surveys on Birdata Surveys must be submitted from a single surveyor/Birdata account holder Surveys are only counted within each survey period For the Major Challenge, at least one survey in each season must be completed from a single Birdata account For Summer Survey, surveys can be from multiple sites