The annual New Zealand Garden Bird Survey is running from 30 June until 8 July 2018 (this week!). Run by Landcare Research, the survey aims to help build a view of birdlife across New Zealand. Birds are such a key part to the health and future of our environment in New Zealand as they act as ‘backyard barometers’. We’d love to see lots of New Zealanders and our covenanters taking part in this year’s survey.

Doing the survey is easy – just pick a day this week that suits you to observe birds in your area for one hour. The team have even created a visual tally sheet to make recording easy and the final data you collect can be submitted in an online form.

You can choose to observe birds in your own backyard, or a public space such like a school, a park, your QEII covenants or even one of our public access covenants. You might be lucky enough to spot some common native birds such as kaka, tui, fantails or kereru and be part of informing bird distribution changes across NZ. Find out more about taking part in the survey here.