The next Big Garden Birdwatch will take place from Friday, January 24th to Sunday, January 26th, 2025. While the event runs for three days, participants are asked to choose just one hour within that period to observe and record the birds that land in their gardens, balconies, or local parks. It’s important to note that this date applies to the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2025 event and might change in future years, although it typically falls on the last weekend of January.
Big Garden Birdwatch: A History of Citizen Science
The Big Garden Birdwatch has been running for an impressive 46 years, with the first event taking place in 1979. It has become the largest garden wildlife survey in the UK, with hundreds of thousands of people participating every year. The collected data provides invaluable insights into bird populations and helps conservation efforts. To date, the survey has not been skipped in any year, providing a continuous record of garden bird life across the UK for nearly half a century. Learn more about how the data gets used and why the scientific methodology used in the initiative was so ground-breaking.
Past Big Garden Birdwatch Dates:
1979: January 28th – 30th
————————-
2023: January 27th – 29th
2024: January 26th – 28th
2025: January 24th – 26th
How to Participate in Big Garden Birdwatch 2025
Participating is easy! Simply choose an hour between Friday, Saturday or Sunday of the Big Garden Birdwatch. Find a comfortable spot in your garden, on your balcony, or at your local park. Count the birds that land within your chosen hour (learn the BGBW counting method), and then submit your results online to the RSPB. Even if you don’t see any birds during your hour, that information is still valuable, so make sure to report it. You can use the Birda app to help you identify your Garden Birdwatch birds.
By participating in the Big Garden Birdwatch, you are contributing to valuable research on garden bird populations and helping to protect these beautiful creatures.
Read about how and when the event started, why it is in January.
