Melbourne-wide November Wren-watch

We’re inviting people across Melbourne to be part of a special bioblitz week, targetting small urban birds! To take part in the bioblitz you can do 15-minute Wren-watches between 24th – 30th November and add your sightings (or absences) to our Superb City Wrens iNaturalist project.

How to do a Superb City Wrens Wren-watch

  1. Make an iNaturalist account and download the iNaturalist app onto your phone (or just head outside with a note book and paper, you can add your sightings later online).
  2. On iNaturalist, search for the “Superb City Wrens” project and click “join”. We need you to add your sightings to this project so we know where to look for the data later.
  3. Pick a location! This can be anywhere – your backyard, a park, even a local street OR you can choose one of the priority locations in your local area (see info below).
  4. Once you are at your wren-watch location, start a 15-minute timer and look for any small birds! This is an ‘active search’ so feel free to look around in shrubs and undergrowth to try and spot our feathered friends. We are interested in Fairy-wrens, and any other similar sized birds that you might notice. This includes:
    • Pardalotes
    • Thornbills
    • Scrubwrens
    • Honeyeaters
  5. When you see a bird, open iNaturalist and record the sighting using the “+” button. If you get a photo, that’s great, but you can also add a sighting with “no media”.
  6. Alternatively, make a note of which bird species you see at your location, then you can add them to iNaturalist later.
  7. Put the bird species ID in the “What did you see?” box, and don’t forget to add it to “Superb City Wrens” in the project box.
  8. Stop looking for birds after 15 minutes.
  9. If you saw no birds at all, please record this as an “absence” in the “What did you see” box as it’s really important information!
  10. If you’ve got the bird-watching bug, feel free to walk a few hundred metres to another location and start your 15 minute timer again! You can do as many Wren-watches as you like 🙂

Where do I go?

We have 12 local councils officially taking part in the November Wren-watch, but you can join in from anywhere! If you want to look for Fairy-wrens in one of your local council’s priority areas you can download the flyer for each council below. But it’s also fine to just explore your own backyard, local park or street!