Play your part! Ireland’s garden bird survey is live

Published by Aoife Rose O'Reilly on December 14, 2016December 14, 2016

[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]Fancy a way to distract yourself from the inevitable Christmas politics talk? Take part in Birdwatch Ireland’s garden bird survey!

Between December and February each year, Birdwatch asks members of the public to keep note of the highest number of each bird species visiting their garden every week. Garden birds are among the most familiar and easily observed bird species, are easily attracted to feeders and bird tables, and can be watched from the comfort of our own homes.

They 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 to know how their populations are faring. The 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.

The results of the GBS are published each year in the winter edition of Wings, the Birdwatch quarterly membership magazine.

Surveys can be filled out online or on paper. Online surveys have instructions on screen and hard copies must be printed, filled out over the course of the winter and returned by post or fax on or before 1st April next year; a full set of instructions is included with the form.

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