Where are the birds in Europe at any given moment? For the first time, a new online viewer allows you to track 600 species in almost real time

EuroBirdPortal (EBP), one of the most innovative projects of the European Bird Census Council (EBCC), presents the new version of its online viewer. In the EBP viewer, everyone can easily compare the current distribution of two different bird species. For example, in Catalonia at this time you can already see the white stork passing by, but to see the European crane we will have to wait a few weeks.

This viewer has been made possible thanks to the extraordinary volume of data collected by nearly 200,000 volunteer birdwatchers through the various data collection portals in Europe. Specifically, there have been 750 million bird observations since 2010, 76 million of which correspond to 2026 alone. All this data is automatically sent every day to the central EBP database, which allows all the viewer maps to be updated daily with the most recent information available.

This enormous flow of biodiversity data, the largest currently operating in Europe in near real time, has been made possible thanks to the support of the European Union's LIFE programme through the LIFE EBP Reinforcement project, coordinated by CREAF in close collaboration with the ICO, coordinator of the EBP project, and the participation of 52 ornithological organisations from 41 different countries.

Gabriel Gargallo, director of the Catalan Institute of Ornithology (ICO) and coordinator of the EBP, commented : “The movements of birds have always fascinated people. Where are the swallows now? Will I soon hear the first cuckoo of the year? With the new version of the EBP viewer, now everyone can know where any species of bird is across the continent and almost in real time.”

All maps in the EBP viewer can be easily shared on social media or embedded on other websites, which helps to promote knowledge of birds and their movements among the general public.

The first version of the EBP viewer was launched in 2015 and, four years later, in 2019, it was redesigned to work in near real-time and display data available up to the previous day.

The viewer shows the distribution patterns of bird species week by week using different types of maps. In addition, to facilitate direct comparison and allow a better appreciation of differences in bird presence, two animated maps of any type, with any species and year, can be selected simultaneously. This way, there are thousands of different map combinations to choose from.

Lluís Brotons, researcher at CREAF and ICO and coordinator of the LIFE EBP Reinforcement, explains : “Thanks to the important improvements made through the LIFE EBP Reinforcement project, we now have higher quality data, essential to properly understand the seasonal distribution patterns of birds and their changes over time , as well as to develop new applications that improve bird conservation.”

Jana Marco, coordinator of ornitho.cat, highlights : “The launch of the new version of the EBP viewer is an extraordinary milestone and, from the ICO, we are proud to contribute to it with information from ornitho, the portal used by the most project partners and that contributes the most data: 333 million, 44% of the total. I would like to especially thank the effort of all the volunteers who send their observations to our portal and who, with their contribution, help us improve knowledge about birds not only in Catalonia, but also throughout Europe.”

About EuroBirdPortal data : The EBP combines data from 21 web portals that collect bird observations in Europe. Some cover only one region or one country, while others operate in several countries (e.g. Ornitho, BirdTrack or Trektellen) or even worldwide (e.g. eBird or Observation.org). All of these portals have as their main objective to obtain bird data throughout the year thanks to the popularity of bird watching, an increasingly widespread hobby in Catalonia and Europe. EuroBirdPortal - Home

About Ornitho.cat : Ornitho.cat is the leading portal for collecting bird data in Catalonia. It was launched in 2009 and currently has more than 11,000 registered users: Ornitho home page - www.ornitho.cat

About LIFE EBP Reinforcement : LIFE EBP Reinforcement has a total budget of €1,110,605.44, 90% funded by the European Union, and is coordinated by CREAF in close collaboration with ICO, coordinator of the EBP project: https://life.eurobirdportal.org/

About the European Bird Census Council (EBCC) : The EBCC is an international association that develops large-scale monitoring projects that combine information collected by the main ornithological organizations in each country in Europe in order to contribute to improving the management and conservation of bird populations on the continent: www.ebcc.info