BTO in Wales Appeal: a new vision

This appeal helped us build our reputation, outreach, integration and research capability in Wales.

Please note that this appeal is now closed to donations. If you’d like to support our work, you can donate to a current appeal >

Why we launched the BTO in Wales Appeal

Wales is full of special birds and dedicated birdwatchers but subject to specific pressures too, particularly linked to the future of farming, marine policies and the need for power and water. However, monitoring bird populations in Wales can be tricky because there are not many birdwatchers engaged in survey work.

Since opening a BTO office in Scotland in 2000, we saw how much more closely staff were able to work with birdwatchers, conservationists and other environmental organisations simply because there was a BTO office within the country.

We wanted to provide the same impetus in Wales, to increase the profile of our work, provide better support for our members and volunteers, and develop our science and research on the key habitats of the west of Britain such as uplands and Atlantic oak woodlands.

“BTO Cymru will provide a clear focus on the key habitats of western Britain – from oak woods, through hill farms and upwards to the mountains.

With development pressures, losses of woodland birds, unexplained disappearances of Green Woodpeckers and Cuckoos, fewer Whinchats on the moors and Lapwings in farmland, there has never been a more important time to count birds in Wales.”

Iolo Williams, President of the Welsh Ornithological Society

BTO Cymru: 2010 to the present day

Thanks to funds raised through this 2010 appeal, along with support from Environment Wales, we officially opened our BTO Cymru office at Bangor University in 2011. Our Wales team has grown steadily since and comprises staff covering science, monitoring, communications and engagement work in Wales.

Some of the projects we have worked on since establishing our Wales office include work to provide evidence to inform policy on fish-eating birds, focused research to help understand the ecology and conservation requirements of Curlew in Wales and more recently, securing funding to establish a monitoring scheme for Welsh raptors.

“The expertise of BTO Cymru staff in the Welsh countryside and culture means they can help ensure that BTO’s national monitoring surveys and research are relevant to Wales.”

Rachel Taylor, Senior Ecologist, BTO Cymru

Featured publications

The potential impacts of current and proposed wind farm developments on Red Kites in Wales

Hereward, H.F.R., Macgregor, C.J., Gabb, O., Connell, A., Thomas, R.J., Cross, A.V. & Taylor, R.C. 2024. Modelling population-level impacts of wind farm collision risk on Welsh Red Kites. BTO Research Report 766. BTO, Thetford, UK

What impact do winter conditions have on Curlew populations?

Woodward, I.D., Austin, G.E., Boersch-Supan, P.H., Thaxter, C.B. & Burton, N.H.K. 2022. Assessing drivers of winter abundance change in Eurasian Curlews Numenius arquata in England and Wales. Bird Study 68: 289-301

Birds of Conservation Concern Wales

Johnstone, I.G., Hughes, J., Balmer, D.E., Brenchley, A., Facey, R.J., Lindley, P.J., Noble, D.G. & Taylor, R.C. 2022. Birds of Conservation Concern Wales 4: the population status of birds in Wales. Milvus: the Journal of the Welsh Ornithological Society

State of Birds in Wales

Bladwell, S., Noble, D.G., Taylor, R., Cryer, J., Galliford, H., Hayhow, D.B., Kirby, W., Smith, D., Vanstine, A. & Wotton, S.R. 2018. The State of Birds in Wales 2018. The RSPB, BTO, NRW and WOS. RSPB Cymru, Cardiff