The Irish Garden Bird Survey - Your county needs you!

The Irish Garden Bird Survey begins on **Monday the 3rd of December**, and we want you (and all your friends, family and neighbours) to take part!

We're really excited about this winter's Irish Garden Bird Survey. First of all, this winter is the 30th year of the Irish Garden Bird Survey, making it the longest-running citizen science research project in Ireland. Second of all, we're delighted to welcome the Ballymaloe Group on board as sponsors for the survey this year ! 

Every year hundreds of people take part in the survey, making it Ireland's most popular citizen science research project. Anyone who has taken part in recent years will tell you that the survey is easy and it's fun, so get involved from the start this winter and I guarantee you'll be glad you did! 

If you've taken part before, why not get your family, friends or neighbours to take part too? 

As far as bird surveys go, they don't get any easier than the Garden Bird Survey because the birds come to you! You can do it from the comfort of your kitchen window, in the mornings before school and work, and on the weekends too. See below for full details: 

How to take part:

1. The survey runs from December to February - the coldest most wintery months, when birds are especially reliant on gardens for shelter, food and water. 
2. Each week you just have to record the species you see on your feeders or in your garden, and the highest number of each species you see at any one time. 
3. So if you see 1 Blue Tit today, but 3 tomorrow - then 3 is your total for Blue Tits this week. If you see 7 Goldfinch today and only 6 tomorrow, then 7 is your total for Goldfinches this week.
4. The survey runs on a weekly basis, so every Monday you start over again! Don't worry if you miss a week or two - as long as you can do 10 of the 13 weeks then you'll still be giving us great data!
5. It doesn't matter if you don't know all of the species in your garden yet - the survey is a great way to get to grips with them!
6. *You can download the survey form here* or enter your results online here.

Garden Bird participants by county - lower numbers in the green counties, highest numbers in the red counties.

Make sure your county is represented in the Irish Garden Bird Survey! 

The greater the variety of gardens that take part in the survey, the more robust our results will be. We have the highest numbers of participants in the red and orange counties in the map above, with lower numbers in yellow and light-green areas, and the lowest participation at present in the dark-green counties. Help boost your counties representation by getting your neighbours, friends and relations to take part!

We tend to have more participants from counties/provinces with bigger populations, but there's still loads of people out there who could be taking part. 

Garden Bird Events

Lastly, if you want to learn more about how to feed your garden birds, BirdWatch Ireland staff will be speaking to our Wicklow, Laois and Roscommon branches on the dates below. We'll be happy to answer any questions you might have, and events are open to non-members too, so do come along!

Wicklow - East Coast Nature Reserve, Newcastle - Sat 24th November @ 10am

Laois - Parish Centre, Portlaoise - Tues 27th November @ 8pm

Roscommon - Hannon's Hotel, Roscommon town - Thurs 6th December @ 8pm