For the first time, the occurrence of all bird species in Europe can be tracked in near-real time

The EBCC launched a new version of the EuroBirdPortal (EBP) viewer today.

This new version has been expanded to cover all bird species occurring in Europe, providing free access to hundreds of animated maps showing the weekly distribution of nearly 600 bird species updated close to real time.

Now everyone can check the whereabouts of their favourite bird with just a few clicks!

In the EBP Viewer, anyone can easily compare the current distribution of any two different bird species. The Common crane (left) and the White Stork (right) are depicted here.

This has been made possible by the extraordinary volume of data routinely contributed by more than 200,000 volunteer birdwatchers to the different online bird recording portals operating in Europe: 750 million bird records since 2010, of which 76 million in 2026 alone.

All this data is automatically submitted to the EBP central database on a daily basis, enabling all maps in the viewer to be updated daily with the most up-to-date information.

This huge biodiversity dataflow, the largest currently operating in Europe in near-real time, has been completed thanks to support from EU’s LIFE Programme (LIFE EBP Reinforcement project) and the close collaboration of a network of 52 ornithological organizations from 41 different countries.

All maps in the EBP viewer can be easily shared on social media or embedded on other websites, helping to raise public awareness and promote greater knowledge of birds

The first version of the EBP viewer was launched in 2015, and four years later (2019) it was redesigned to work in live mode, showing data up to the previous day. As in previous versions, the current viewer depicts the week-by-week distributional patterns of bird species using different types of maps. Moreover, to facilitate direct comparison and to better glimpse differences in bird occurrence, two animated maps of any type, species and year can be selected to be shown simultaneously, offering thousands of different map combinations to choose from.

Gabriel Gargallo, EBP project coordinator, said: “Bird movements have always fascinated people. Where are the swallows now? Can I expect to hear my first cuckoo soon? With the new version of the EBP viewer, everyone can now track the occurrence of any bird species across the continent, freely and in near real time.

Moreover, thanks to the significant improvements in coverage, data quality and connectivity achieved through the LIFE EBP Reinforcement project, we now have better data, vital to properly understand the seasonal patterns of bird distribution and their changes over time, as well as to develop novel applications to inform bird conservation policies.  

All this would not be possible without the thousands of volunteer birdwatchers who regularly share their observations with the various online bird portals. The new EBP viewer is a recognition to their vital role in the project and showcases how such individual local contributions can be summed up in favour of bird conservation and outreach at the European scale.”

The full press release is available here.