Incidental sightings
Reporting incidental sightings through BirdTrack
BirdTrack is a free and easy way to report your wader sightings. You can add one-off sightings as well as full lists, making it ideal for incidental records.
The app also allows you to find out about recently reported birds and view the latest trends in species reports.
How do incidental sightings support wader conservation?
One-off records of waders can be extremely valuable. When these are submitted to BirdTrack, local wader monitoring groups will be directed towards potentially unknown breeding sites, particularly when accompanied by evidence of breeding behaviour.
These records also provide evidence for occupancy and breeding, though unlike survey data, they cannot provide estimates of population size or the number of breeding pairs in an area.
Get started with BirdTrack
You can use BirdTrack on your desktop or on your mobile phone. You will need a free My BTO account to start.
- Create a new My BTO account, or log in to an existing account.
- Log in to the BirdTrack portal or download the BirdTrack app to begin submitting records.
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Contact the Wader Hub
Get in touch
We can offer advice about any of the Hub’s supported methods, and about wader monitoring more widely.
- waders [at] bto.org
Guides and resources
All our bespoke Wader Hub resources, from support for new projects to detailed information about survey techniques.
Send us your feedback
We want the Wader Hub to be as valuable as possible for everyone involved in wader conservation. Send us your feedback:
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