Frequently Asked Questions

The Aussie Bird Count is an activity for all ages that involves observing and counting the birds that live near you – whether that’s in your garden, the local park, a beach or even your town centre. By telling us about the birds you’ve seen within a 20-minute period, you will help BirdLife Australia develop an understanding of local birds whilst getting to know the wildlife on your doorstep!

The Aussie Bird Count is run by BirdLife Australia. We are Australia’s largest bird conservation charity with the core purpose of stopping extinctions of Australia’s birds. You can read more about us on our website.

The 2025 Bird Count will be held 20–26 October.  

The Aussie Bird Count takes place once a year in October, however BirdLife Australia runs other surveys throughout the year that you can take part in. Birds In Backyards runs seasonal surveys that you can join in with, even if you’re not an expert birdwatcher, and there’s lots of info on how to attract more birds to your backyard! Check it out here. You can also register with our Birdata app if you want to take part in more regular bird surveys. Birdata is BirdLife Australia’s online Bird Monitoring Platform. It incorporates BirdLife Australia’s nationwide survey, Birds in Backyards, Birds on Farms, Aussie Bird Count, as well as targeted threatened species surveys.

By participating in the Aussie Bird Count, you will be helping BirdLife Australia find out about the common species that live where people live. Providing us with a snapshot of Australian birds at the same time each year allows us to look at the trends in our bird communities from year to year. This is important because it’s these more common species that give us the best indication of the health of the environment – think of birds as a barometer for nature!

All data collected during the Aussie Bird Count is collected and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy. BirdLife Australia creates reports for partnering organisations using the bird data collected by individuals. This data does not disclose personal information of users, but may include latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of species detected, number of individuals detected per species, reporting rate for species and distribution maps. 

Spring is the season when birds are more lively and visible. They begin nesting, breeding and flocking and generally appear more playful. Thousands of migrant birds return to our shores in spring as well. For these reasons it is also National Bird Week, a tradition that started back in the early 1900s when 28 October was first designated by our predecessor, the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, as the first ‘Bird Day’.

Twenty minutes is the standard period for a BirdLife Australia bird survey. Keeping in line with other BirdLife Australia bird surveys and having everyone counting for the same time means the data we receive will be more scientifically robust, allowing us to use it in our conservation efforts. If you wanted to count for one hour, we would like you to submit three consecutive 20-minute count(s).  

You can read about the prizes up for grabs here. In order to enter this competition, entrants must submit a count to the Aussie Bird Count via the app or website. Only one entry will be accepted per person. Multiple submission will count as a single entry per person. The full terms and conditions of the prize draw can be found here.

To complete the Aussie Bird Count, spend 20 minutes standing or sitting in one spot and noting down the birds that you see. You will need to count the number of each species you spot within the 20-minute period. For example, you might see 4 Australian Magpies, 2 Rainbow Lorikeets and a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo. If you can identify birds by their calls, please include these in your count, but if you aren’t sure of a bird without seeing it, please exclude it rather than making a guess. The Aussie Bird Count app has a handy field-guide to help you identify birds.   

Once you have completed your count, you can submit it in two different ways:  

1. You can submit your bird count through the online web form (this form won’t be made live until mid October)  

OR  

2. You can submit your counts through the free Aussie Bird Count app. The app is available for iPhones and Android smartphones, go to the Google Play or Apple App Store to download the app for free. If you have the Aussie Bird Count app from previous years don’t delete it, it should update automatically with the newest version. In between event dates, the app operates as a field-guide/bird finder.  

Of course! In addition to being able to count using the app on a smartphone, you can also use the Submit a Count form on the website.

Please note: that the submission form on this page won’t be live until mid October — still giving you plenty of time to get familiar with it before the Aussie Bird Count officially starts.

Unfortunately, we simply don’t have the resources to enter the data manually. Our webform is simple and easy to use. We recommend writing down the birds you see during your count and then jumping onto our website to fill out the Submit a Count webform.

Yes of course! The Aussie Bird Count is open to everyone – from complete beginners to certified birds-nerds! If you aren’t confident identifying local birds, we recommend you download Aussie Bird Count app which has a great field guide function for identifying birds based on their size, colour and key features.     

No, all you need is 20 minutes, your favourite outdoor spot and the Aussie Bird Count app to start counting. See which birds you can spot in the area around you. If they are too far away to identify, then simply exclude them from your count.

Yes, you can use the Aussie Bird Count app offline. Once you are connected to the internet again, it’s best to open the app to make sure your count has been submitted. 

20 minutes is the standard period for a BirdLife Australia bird survey. Keeping in line with other BirdLife Australia bird surveys and having everyone counting for the same time means the data we receive will be more scientifically robust, allowing us to use it in our conservation efforts. If you wanted to count for one-hour, you will need to submit three consecutive 20-minute counts.

No, if you only have time to submit one count, that’s great. If you have time to submit multiple counts, even better!  

Yes, you can participate as many times as you like and we would love you to submit multiple counts. Keep in mind a separate count will need to be submitted for each 20-minute count, and each time you change location.   

No, we’d love you to submit multiple counts from multiple locations!    

The short answer is no. It’s best to count the birds from one spot for 20 minutes and see how many you can see from where you’re standing or sitting. If you’re going on a long walk, you could always count before and/or after your walk.

If you want to get technical, we would recommend counting within a (maximum) 80m radius or an area of approximately 100m x 200m.

There is never a bad time to count birds; you can count at any time of day or night. However, birds are more active at dawn and dusk, so if you choose to do your count then, you may see more birds.  

We want to know the actual number of birds not the number of visits. Record only the highest number of individual birds of each species that you see together at any one time. For example, three magpies might pop into the garden, head next door and then two come back again – that is three birds, not five.  

It can be difficult to count birds when there’s a flock of hundreds or even thousands! We suggest counting a group of ten birds from the flock, by using that grouping size as a guide over the rest of the flock and counting in tens you’ll be able to get your best estimate. It can be a challenge, but it definitely gets easier the more you practice.  

If you are counting in a group, please only submit one count per group. There will be an option on the website form and on the app for you to let us know how many people were in your group counting at that particular time. If members of your group then decide to do another count by themselves at a different time, then they can submit those counts separately.  

Don’t worry, we still want to hear from you. We want all counts submitted, even if you didn’t see many or any birds. This will be the best way for us to get a true representation of the birds around Australia.   

If you can accurately ID the bird/s calling, you can include it in your count, even if you don’t see it. If you are unsure, leave it out.

Yes, but you don’t have to. If you can accurately identify the bird/s that is flying overhead, you can include it in your count. A single bird may be easy to identify, but a flock may have mixed species in it, so be sure that you are able to make a correct ID. Again, if you are unsure leave it out. 

You can easily fix any mistakes before you submit your counts. Please refer to the “Help with the website and app” section on this page . 

After submitting a count, you will receive an email summary of your count. In this email, you will find a link that you can follow if you need to edit that count. 

Refer to the “Help with the website and app” section on this page. 

There is a Field Guide/Bird Finder built into the app and on the website to help you identify birds. When looking at the bird try to note its size, shape and colour. This will allow the app to give you the most accurate choices.  

We don’t have every single bird in Australia in there, but there are 400 available – and these are the more common ones, so your bird should be in there.  

There are many wonderful field guides available as books or apps – try your local bookstore or even library to get a hold of one.  

If you are still unsure after referring to a field guide, please leave the bird out.  

Don’t worry, we still want to hear from you. We want all counts submitted, even if you didn’t see many or any birds. This will be the best way for us to get a true representation of the birds around Australia.   

If you can accurately ID the bird/s calling, you can include it in your count, even if you don’t see it. If you are unsure, leave it out.   

Yes, but you don’t have to. If you can accurately identify the bird/s that is flying overhead, you can include it in your count. A single bird may be easy to identify, but a flock may have mixed species in it, so be sure that you are able to make a correct ID. Again, if you are unsure, leave it out. 

When selecting the colours of the bird you’ve seen in the field guide, please keep in mind that males, females and juveniles can look very different within a single bird species and are not necessarily represented by the images. Sometimes the colour you have selected is in the text rather than the image of the bird.  

The app Field Guide features just under 400 species even though there are around 800 species of birds in Australia. Be as general as possible when searching. There are some birds that are known colloquially by a different name that may not be their common name.  

• There is a bird called a Topknot Pigeon, however a much more common backyard visitor is the Crested Pigeon which is also sometimes referred to as a ‘Topknot’ 
• Blue Wren and Jenny Wren= Superb Fairy-wren (east coast) or a Splendid Fairy-wren (WA)  
• Soldier Birds = Noisy Miners  
• Ravens are often mistaken for crows and vice versa; be sure to check the field guide to get your ID correct  
• Fairy Penguin = Little Penguin  
• Shag = Cormorant (various species)  
• Fork-tailed Kite = Black Kite  
• White Cocky = Sulphur-crested Cockatoo  
• Mopoke can refer to either the Southern Boobook or the Tawny Frogmouth 
• Greeny = White-plumed Honeyeater  
• Robin Redbreast = Flame Robin, Scarlet Robin
• Cranky Fan = Grey Fantail  

We require you to have an account with us to take part in the Aussie Bird Count. 

Your ‘myBirdLife’ account is a global user account for you with BirdLife Australia, which streamlines your interactions with us, including submitting your count through the app or website. If you have not previously created a myBirdLife user account with us, you will need to do so before registering for the Aussie Bird Count. 

Visit how to register for the Aussie Bird Count for more information. 

You can download the Aussie Bird Count app for iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones/tablets. Go to the Google Play or Apple App Store store to download it for free.  

If you use a laptop or desktop computer, you can use this web form to submit your count. (Please note: This web form is closed until mid October, so if it’s before this time, the “Submit a Count” form will be unavailable.)    

The counting function on the app is closed for most of the year and is made available in the weeks leading up to the start of the annual bird count. We keep the app online and available to download and use year-round so people can use the bird finder tool if they want, but as the count is only on for one week each October, we hide this feature outside of the Aussie Bird Count time as there is no use for it the rest of the year.

You can only download the Aussie Bird Count app to your smartphone or tablet, and only on Apple or Android. You can’t download the app to your computer or windows phone. If you would like to participate in the Aussie Bird Count via your computer you can submit your counts directly through the website. Just click here: Submit a Count. (Please note: This web form is closed until mid-October, so if it’s before this time, the “Submit a Count” form will be unavailable.)  

App – If you are submitting your counts via the app and you wish to delete a bird on your list, just tap the minus button until a pop-up screen appears, this screen will ask if you want to remove that species from your list.  

Website – If you are submitting your counts via the website and you wish to delete a bird on your list, there is a little grey cross next to the bird name; simply click on it to delete.  

Once you have submitted your count, you will receive an email summary of this count. The email will contain a link to a web form that will allow you to edit your count if you spot any errors in the email list.