How to submit rare breeding bird records

Little Ringed Plover, apparently on a nest – a record well worth submitting to the relevant county bird recorder to ensure it contributes to the RBBP’s annual reporting. Credit – RSPB Images.

Much of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel’s communications work – social media posts, YouTube videos, blogs – is intended to encourage birdwatchers to look for rare breeding birds and, crucially, submit records of any they encounter. This blog, with an accompanying video, aims to give a little bit of detail on how records should be submitted to help those who might be unfamiliar with the process.

Basically, unless you’re taking part in a formal scheme – such as the BTO/JNCC Nest Recording Scheme, as part of a raptor study group, or participating in a national survey – records should be submitted to the local bird recorder. These recorders, most covering a county on behalf of a bird club or natural history society, form a network across the entire UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands with the responsibility of collating data on all birds, maintaining local archives, and reporting usually through annual county bird reports. One of their responsibilities is to collate data on rare breeding birds and submit an annual return to the RBBP, and about 65-70% of the data we receive every year comes from these recorders – they really are the bedrock of rare breeding bird reporting in the UK. To be honest, even if you know your records will reach the RBBP via another route, such as the Nest Recording Scheme or a Schedule one license return, it’s good to also submit records to the relevant county recorder so local databases are complete as possible.

There are a number of ways to submit data to local bird recorders. You can do it directly – the BTO’s website has a list of the recorders, with emails, for all of the UK’s recording areas. Alternatively, google the local bird club; nearly all have websites with details of their preferred reporting routes – some will have their own web function for submitting sightings, for example.

The other way, which is very simple to do, is via the two main portals for birdwatching observations, BirdTrack and eBird. Both are totally free to use, allow you to log all of your bird sightings and see and analyse them at a later date (to maintain your lists, for example), see what other birders have been seeing, and, crucially, to share them with local recorders and national organisations. You can input records from home after birding trips or use the free apps and do it in real time in the field. Crucially, county bird recorders can access this data, so a record of a rare breeding bird submitted to BirdTrack or eBird will be available to be included in their annual return to the RBBP. You don’t need to worry about where you are and who the recorder is – BirdTrack or eBird will work this out for you from the site you choose for your sighting. Equally importantly the schemes use filters so that in the breeding season records of rare breeders are not shared publicly.

Records of rare breeding birds such as Little Ringed Plover can be entered into BirdTrack one your computer at home (left), or in the field using the Android or IoS apps on your smartphone (right).

The other vital point the RBBP wishes to promote is not only should birdwatchers submit records as described above, but they should submit good records. So records of rare breeding birds should include all the relevant information to help us understand what was happening – the precise details of when, where, how many, what. There will be a follow-up blog coming very shortly with details of what makes a good record, to ensure that submissions are as valuable as possible for our work.