Garden BirdWatch Drawing Competition
Love birds? Love drawing? This summer project gives families a great reason to watch garden birds together, and the chance to win a pair of compact binoculars for the best garden bird drawing! Garden BirdWatch is a scientific project that monitors birds in gardens, but it’s also a fun activity for families to do together. The project involves watching, counting, drawing and writing, and is open to children aged 5-11.
Watching, counting, drawing and writing for families with children aged 5-11
The bird survey
1. Make a list of your garden birds each week
You can choose a set time to watch your birds, or do it any time, but try to spend the same amount of time each week. You can also count the maximum number of each species you see together. See below for instructions, a log sheet, and a bird ID guide.
Parents: you can talk about what birds you expect to see. Why do you think you see more of some kinds of birds? What foods do they like to eat?
2. Register for GBW and input your sightings on our website
Parents: you'll need to register for a GBW account on our website. These records will go into the important Garden BirdWatch national database, so you’ll be helping with scientific research!
GBW is an ongoing project, so if you like it you can continue helping with our research by carrying on after the end of the summer.
The drawing competition
1. At the end of August, draw a picture of one of your garden birds
Look at your counts and choose the bird you saw most often, or the bird with the highest counts (but it's ok if you just pick your favourite!)
You could also make your counts part of the picture, or draw your and your family birdwatching.
If you love writing, write a sentence alongside your picture telling us what you saw and why you enjoyed it.
2. Share your picture with us by Sunday 6 September 2020
Parents, send the picture to us on Twitter with the hashtag #SummerGardenBirdWatch, or email gbw [at] bto.org with the subject Summer Garden BirdWatch Competition. Please include the child's first name and age, the full name of the Garden BirdWatch account holder, and permission to publish the drawing and child's name and age. You can, optionally, also include photos of your family birdwatching together.
Our favourite drawing will be published on our website and will win a pair of Opticron Savanna compact binoculars (RRP £89). Ten runners-up will receive a Gardman Paint Your Own Feeder, a wooden feeder you can decorate with non-toxic paint and hang in the garden.
Download resources
Summer Recording form (PDF, 0.4 MB)
Use this sheet to keep track of your observations throughout the week, before submitting them online.
How to take part - instructions (PDF, 0.2 MB)
How to record and submit your data to Garden BirdWatch.
Terms and Conditions
Read the full terms and conditions for the prize draw (PDF, 72.45 KB)
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