The Irish Garden Bird Survey is BirdWatch Ireland’s most popular citizen science survey, with around two thousand gardens taking part each year. The Irish Garden Bird Survey is kindly sponsored by Ballymaloe.
Between December and February each year, we ask members of the public to keep note of the highest number of each bird species visiting their garden every week. We also ask for information on the size of the garden being surveyed, the kinds of food, if any, being offered to the birds, and so on. Taking part is fun, easy and an ideal way to get to know your garden birds better; it also makes an ideal school project.
As the Irish countryside changes, gardens are becoming increasingly important havens for many species, and it is vital for us to know how their populations are faring. The Irish Garden Bird Survey does this not only by giving us a good idea of how our garden birds themselves are doing, but also an indication of how the environment is faring in general.
There’s no need to register beforehand. You can send us your garden bird records online, by email or by post, and we publish the results of the survey each year in the winter edition of Wings – our membership magazine.
The survey is open to everyone, whether you’re a BirdWatch Ireland member or not, and there’s no charge or fee to take part. Any donation you can spare though will help us to make the survey bigger and better, and allow us to delve deeper into the results to learn more about Ireland’s garden birds and the difficulties they face.
Survey form for the Irish Garden Bird Survey in winter 2022/23. Once completed, you can enter your results online, photograph the form and email it to gardenbirds@birdwatchireland.ie, or send it…
Results from the Irish Garden Bird Survey for Winter 2020/21, as originally published in the winter 2021 edition of our membership magazine ‘Wings‘.
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