The Sorby Natural History Society, Sheffield
Covering a full range of natural history interests in Sheffield and the surrounding area, providing for both interested beginners and specialists.Guidance on Bird Recording
The formal bird recording function of Sorby came to an end with Harold Smith’s retirement in 2022. However, there are several well-established local and national recording systems, and rather than duplicating effort, we encourage Sorby members to choose one of these platforms that best meets your interests in recording nature. This will contribute to a better understanding of birds and how they are faring. Many of these have apps that you can use on your mobile phone in addition to entering data from a computer. You do not need to be a member to add records for some of these organisations.
The recording platforms below include a verification stage which upgrades records for research purposes, at least for rare or unusual species.
Sheffield Bird Study Group (SBSG) www.sbsg.org
Derbyshire Ornithological Society (DOS) www.derbyshireos.org.uk
Also feeds into the Derbyshire Biological Records Centre centre via Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
BirdTrack app.bto.org/birdtrack
BirdTrack is run by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
eBird ebird.org/region/GB
Managed by The Cornell Lab for Ornithology, New York.
Recording for all taxa, not just birds
iRecord irecord.org.uk
Sorby uses iRecord ‘Activities’ for members to record observations in Sorbyshire, including butterflies, moths and bugs. The goal of iRecord is to help bring together wildlife sightings from many sources, so that they can be checked by experts and made available to support research and decision-making. It is operated by the UK Biological Records Centre (BRC) as part of the work of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).
iNaturalist www.inaturalist.org
iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you while generating data for science and conservation. USA based.
Licensing of records
The creative commons license CC-BY setting is recommended for recorders using iRecord. This enables, for example, local authority staff to use records in making decisions about planning applications that might impact nature, which could be construed as a commercial purpose, without concerns about licensing and copyright.
This license enables re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator, in our case the recorder, this means credit must be given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.