Since its conception in 2004, BirdTrack has always had bird recording at its core. However, over the years both mammals, and dragonflies and damselflies were added alongside birds. On the 20th July we extended this to also include butterflies, reptiles, amphibians, and orchids to the list of taxa groups that can be added to BirdTrack. These taxonomic groups are often recorded by birdwatchers and there has always been the desire from a large number of users to add their records for these groups to BirdTrack.

Whilst we could feasibly add all taxonomic groups to BirdTrack, we believe that the groups we now made available encompass the most commonly recorded groups birdwatchers also like to record. During discussions with each of the relevant organisations for the taxa groups we’ve added, such as Butterfly Conservation, The Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, and The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, it was recognised that the types of records collected via BirdTrack would represent a portion of records that would typically not make it to the relevant recorders. Most of these records being ad hoc incidental records added whilst out birdwatching rather than during dedicated butterfly or reptile surveying. The additional taxonomic groups have already been well received and records for each of the groups continue to be added each day.

We are now working on a data flow that will allow these records to be passed on a daily basis to iRecord, making them available to the relevant recorders (many of whom already collect records from iRecord) without creating yet another data source that they have to extract records from. At present it is only possible to add records for these other groups via the BirdTrack website but we plan to integrate this to the mobile app in a future release.