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Big Garden Birdwatch 2026

Get ready to look for birds this weekend! This year’s Big Garden Birdwatch runs from 23th to 25th January 2026: Big Garden Birdwatch is fun, free and for everyone.

Birda's bird watching app on the Apple App Store
Birda's birdwatching app on the Play Store
White Birda App of the Day award graphic with Apple logo, laurel wreath, five-star rating, and “App of the Day in 148 countries”
Get started, it's free

Big Garden Birdwatch with Birda

For the forth year running, Birda is supporting the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch by providing a fun and easy way for you to log your BGBW bird sightings using the Birda app.

Once you have finished your Big Garden Birdwatch session on Birda, visit the RSPB website to submit your sightings. You must submit what you see via the RSPB’s website if you want them to be included in the Big Garden Birdwatch results.

  • 23th - 25th Jan 2026
  • Log the birds that land on your garden
  • Support nature by helping the RSPB track the well-being of the UK's garden birds

How to Take Part in Big Garden Birdwatch

1. Download the Birda app

Birda's bird watching app on the Apple App Store
Birda's birdwatching app on the Play Store
Birda App of the Day award graphic showing Apple logo, laurel wreath, five-star rating, and “App of the Day in 148 countries”
Get started, it's free

2. Review the guidelines on how to log what you see

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - Choose an hour between 23 and 25 January
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - Only record the birds that land in your patch
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - Record the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time

3. Open Birda and start a 'Live Session'

A mobile app screen displaying options for bird sightings, live and past sessions, and bird photo ID features.

4. Log your sightings for 1 hour

Logging Big Garden Birdwatch sightings using the Birda App

5. Stop and save your session after 1 hour

Birdwatching app screenshot showing the session log screen.

6. Open your saved session to get the list of birds you saw

Bird watching app for identifying and tracking bird species.

7. Submit your BGBW session to the RSPB

Submit Your Session

FAQs

The Big Garden Birdwatch run from the 23rd to the 25 January 2026

You can register for the Big Garden Birdwatch on the RSPB website

Yes, the Big Garden birdwatch is completely free and anyone in the UK can participate. It’s open to people of all ages and levels of experience, from complete beginners to seasoned birdwatchers. You don’t need any special equipment.

Record and count the birds you see for exactly one hour.

No, you can only count the bird species that land in your garden.

Record the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time.

So imagine 4 House Sparrows where to land in your garden and then flew off. Five minutes later two House Sparrows landed in your garden and then flew off. In this case you would record seeing 4 House Sparrows, not 6 House Sparrows.

The Big Garden Birdwatch counting sheet, provided by the RSPB, features images of birds you might spot and offers space to record your sightings. While helpful, you can view images of all your local bird species, listen to bird calls and learn fun facts about the birds near you directly in the Birda app. You can also then log them in a dedicated RSPB Garden Birdwatch session that records and summarises your results so you can easily submit them.

To submit your big garden Birdwatch results all you need to do is take your results from your Birda session and submit the number of bird species to the RSPB.