Activity
Environmental Change Network: Common Birds Census

The Common Birds Census (CBC), operated by BTO, was started in 1962 following trials in 1961, with the aim of monitoring bird population numbers, chiefly on farmland where the growing use of agricultural chemicals and the accelerating rate of hedgerow destruction was causing particular concern. Later other habitats, notably woodland, were included in the scheme. CBC uses a mapping method in which a series of visits are made to all parts of a defined plot during the breeding season, and contacts with birds by sight or sound are recorded on large-scale maps. Information from the series of visits is combined to estimate the number of territories found. Maps of the same plot from different years can be used to assess changes in species densities and to relate these to changes in habitats. CBC results also provide indices of population change for those species which are sufficiently numerous to provide large samples when considered across the sites participating in the scheme. Note: This has been superseded by the ECN Breeding Bird Survey

General Information

Keywords: ECN
Links to data: ECN Data Centre

Location

Bounding box

This activity uses these facilities/networks:

Wytham
Porton
Hillsborough
Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon
Sourhope
Alice Holt
North Wyke
Moor House - Upper Teesdale
Rothamsted (Harpenden)
Glensaugh research station
Drayton
Cairngorms

This activity is set up for these programmes:

Environmental Change Network

Contacts

Lead organisation: Sue Rennie Centre for Ecology & Hydrology LANCASTER LA1 4AP UK ecnccu@ceh.ac.uk
Funder: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute BELFAST BT9 5PX UK info@afbini.gov.uk http://www.afbini.gov.uk
Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon WILTSHIRE SN2 1UH UK +44 (0)1793 413200 http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/
Funder: Natural Resources Wales Ty Cambria 29 Newport Road CARDIFF CF24 0TP UK enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk +44 (0) 300 065 3000 http://naturalresourceswales.gov.uk/
Funder: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory Porton Down Salisbury WILTSHIRE SP4 0JQ UK +44 (0) 1980 613000 https://www.dstl.gov.uk/
Funder: Defra 17 Smith Square LONDON SW1P 3JR UK defra.helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk +44 20 7238 6951 https://www.gov.uk/defra
Funder: Environment Agency National Customer Contact Centre PO Box 544 ROTHERHAM S60 1BY UK enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk 03708 506 506 https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency
Funder: Forestry Commission 620 Bristol Business Park Coldharbour Lane BRISTOL BS16 1EJ UK fe.england@forestry.gsi.gov.uk +44 (0) 117 906 6000 http://www.forestry.gov.uk/
Funder: Welsh Government Cathays Park CARDIFF CF10 3NQ UK 0300 0603300 http://wales.gov.uk/
Funder: Natural England Foundry House 3 Millsands Riverside Exchange SHEFFIELD S3 8NH UK enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk 0300 060 3900 http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/
Funder: Natural Environment Research Council Polaris House North Star Avenue SWINDON SN2 1EU UK +44 (0) 1793 411500 http://www.nerc.ac.uk
Funder: Northern Ireland Environment Agency nieainfo@doeni.gov.uk 0845 302 0008 http://www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/
Funder: Scottish Environment Protection Agency Erskine Court Castle Business Park STIRLING FK9 4TR UK +44 (0) 1786 457700 http://www.sepa.org.uk/
Funder: Scottish Government St. Andrew's House Regent Road EDINBURGH EH1 3DG UK ceu@scotland.gsi.gov.uk 0300 244 4000 http://www.scotland.gov.uk
Funder: Scottish Natural Heritage Leachkin Road INVERNESS IV3 8NW UK enquiries@snh.gov.uk +44 (0) 1463 725000 http://www.snh.gov.uk
Other: ADAS Pendeford House Pendeford Business Park Wobaston Rd Pendeford WOLVERHAMPTON WV9 5AP UK enquiries@adas.co.uk 0845 766 0085 http://www.adas.co.uk/
Other: Forest Research Alice Holt Lodge Farnham SURREY GU10 4LH UK research.info@forestry.gsi.gov.uk 01420 22255 http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestresearch
Other: Marine Scotland Science 375 Victoria Road PO Box 101 ABERDEEN AB11 9DB UK +44 (0)1224 876544 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/science
Other: Rothamsted Research Harpenden HERTFORDSHIRE AL5 2JQ UK + 44 (0) 1582 763 133 http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk
Other: The James Hutton Institute Craigiebuckler Craigiebuckler ABERDEEN AB15 8QH UK info@hutton.ac.uk +44 (0) 844 928 5428 http://www.hutton.ac.uk/
Other: UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network http://awmn.defra.gov.uk/

Metadata

Publication status: PUBLIC
Record identifier: 4a47e0f5-4121-4653-aade-a3f155d6e252
Last modified: 2017-08-21 11:17:28
Metadata author: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology ecnccu@ceh.ac.uk

Activity Environmental Change Network: Common Birds Census