Birds

RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch
Type: Survey
Location: UK wide
Season/duration: 23 - 25 January 2026
Time needed: 1 hour
Experience needed: none, although ideal if you can identify common garden birds, guides available to download
Description: Spend just 1 hour watching and counting the birds that visit your garden or a local green space!

The British Trust for Ornithology always have many projects you can get involved with depending on your experience and location, including monitoring breeding birds, geese and swans, nesting birds, and heronries. The ones I have included below are ideal for beginners but check out the BTO website for the full list!
BTO's Weekly Garden Birdwatch
Type: Survey
Location:Uk wide
Season/duration: all year
Time needed: minimum of 20 minutes a week
Experience needed: can identify common garden birds
Description: Just like the Big Garden Birdwatch but week every week. Get to know the birds in your garden!

BTO's Blackbirds in Gardens Survey (currently closed)
Type: Survey
Location:Uk wide
Season/duration: summer months
Time needed: minimum of 15 minutes a week
Experience needed: can identify male, female and juvenile blackbirds
Description: Help the BTO to monitor the wellbeing of the UK's blackbirds and the impact the mosquito-borne Usutu virus is having on them. This survey is part of the Vector-Borne RADAR project.

Swift Mapper
Type: Record a sighting
Location: UK wide
Experience needed: confidently identify swifts
Description: Swift mapper collects important information on our swift population. If you know of an occupied or previously occupied nest, nesting sites deliberately provided for swifts such as a nesting box or swift brick, or you spot a screaming party of swifts (swifts fyling in a group at roughly roof height calling loudly), record them on swift mapper.

Another great way to help bird research worldwide is to use the app eBird to record any of your bird sightings. Another great app also by Cornell lab is Merlin. The app uses sound ID to suggest what birds you are hearing and is a great way to become more familiar with bird calls.