About

• How to take part
• Your questions answered
• Teachers feedback
• More about Big Schools' Birdwatch

How to take part

It couldn't be easier to take part in the Big Schools' Birdwatch with our step-by-step guide:

• Register online to get your unique Big Schools' Birdwatch PIN number, and request your free teachers activity pack, which contains resources to help young people identify and count birds
• Arrange a day between 19-30 January to do your watch. Morning is the best time of day to see birds – or after break when they come to pick up dropped crumbs from the playground
• Set up some feeders in a convenient place near your classroom windows, and around your school grounds
• Watch birds for a total of one hour, keeping count of how many birds of the same kind are seen at the same time. You only need to record the birds actually in your grounds or in the park, not those flying over
• Send us your results and we'll enter you into our prize draw for some fantastic goodies for your school. If you do the survey in shifts, pull together all your counts so that you are ready to submit ONE set of results for each class or group
• Receive your certificate and letter telling you the results of the survey

Once you have sent in your survey results we collect them together and do some serious adding-up. This helps us to see how birds are doing across the UK and creates an overview of which birds are making the most of school grounds.

We think it is also a great way to start an interest in birds and wildlife and for children to observe and engage with the world around them. We want to extend that opportunity to as many children as possible.