Citizen science recording projects

Herp occurrence reporting

Recording project

Submit reptile and amphibian records that reach state agencies, with locality obscuring for sensitive species

Australian frog call project

Recording projectAustralia

Record a frog call on a phone and get a verified record into the national dataset

Marine invertebrate sightings

Recording project

Report gelatinous plankton sightings, but confirm the site is reachable before building a survey on it

Photography-based citizen science

Recording project

Fold photography into a recording project, and reach photographers who could document your species

Sawfish sighting map

Recording project

Report a sawfish encounter, and mine the sighting map when scoping surveys in remaining habitat

Jaguar sightings

Recording project

Filter jaguar observations by evidence type, which matters when a record is a track rather than a photograph

Safari sighting app

Recording project

Watch safari sighting reports as an informal signal of where large mammals are being seen

Seabird colony registry

Recording project

Check colony registry records, but verify the host is reachable before you depend on it

Photograph a bumblebee anywhere in the US or Canada and an expert verifies the species. Running at over 16,000 sightings a month

Recording projectUS

Get a bumblebee photograph verified by an expert, which few insect schemes manage at this volume

Pan-European butterfly and moth transect counts across 6,000+ transects, with a recording app in ten or more languages

Recording projectEurope

Adopt its transect protocol so your counts stay comparable with thousands of European sites

Germany's weekly volunteer butterfly transect walks, running since 2005. In German

Recording projectEurope

Borrow a weekly transect design tested over twenty years, if you can read German

Butterfly transects across Catalonia, the Balearics and Andorra since 1994. In Catalan

Recording projectEurope

Use one of the longest butterfly time series in Europe as a Mediterranean reference

Mexico's monarch migration monitoring network, run by Profauna since 1992. Report by form, WhatsApp or email. In Spanish

Recording projectLatin America

Report monarchs moving through Mexico by WhatsApp, form or email, which lowers the barrier for rural observers

Peer-reviewed national butterfly database for India, built largely from public photographs

Recording projectAsia

Check a peer-reviewed Indian record before treating a butterfly photograph as a range extension

Photo-report invasive mosquitoes, bites and breeding sites. Spanish in origin, now international. Spanish, Catalan and English

Recording projectGlobal

Report invasive mosquitoes and breeding sites, and see how a vector scheme handles several languages

Germany asks you to post the actual mosquito in, for identification and mapping. Over 42,000 specimens sent in. In German

Recording projectEurope

Study a scheme that collects physical specimens by post, for when photographs cannot settle identification

UK anglers and volunteers kick-sample mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies as an early warning on water quality

Recording projectUK

Train volunteers to kick-sample invertebrates as an early warning on water quality between official tests

National dragonfly and damselfly records through county recorders and iRecord, UK

Recording projectUK

Submit dragonfly records through county recorders and iRecord, joining over two million verified observations

Volunteer counts of glow-worms at known sites, feeding the Biological Records Centre

Recording project

Count glow-worms at a known site and add the record to the UK national dataset

Trained volunteers report frog and toad breeding calls from February to August across the US

Recording projectUS

Train volunteers to report breeding calls across a fixed February to August season

The Netherlands' volunteer recording networks for reptiles, amphibians and freshwater fish. In Dutch

Recording projectEurope

Copy a national volunteer structure for herps and freshwater fish, if Dutch is not a barrier

Map Australian freshwater turtle sightings, nests and road deaths. Over 34,000 records and 2,000 nests protected

Recording projectAustralia

Map turtle nests and road deaths together, which is how you find where fencing would pay off

Report shark, skate and ray eggcases found on the beach. UK-led with a newer Australian arm

Recording projectUK

Turn a beach walk into elasmobranch distribution data, and use it as a low-skill volunteer entry point

Timed seaweed surveys on UK shores, run by the Natural History Museum with the Marine Conservation Society

Recording projectUK

Run a timed shore survey using a protocol a museum has already validated

Survey indicator plants in a randomly allocated 1 km square, UK. Ten years of data as of 2025

Recording projectUK

Take a randomly allocated square so your plant data escapes the bias of picking attractive sites

UK phenology records for plants, animals and fungi, continuing a series that starts in 1736

Recording projectUK

Add phenology records to a series reaching back to 1736, which almost no climate dataset can match

Track leaf flush, flowering and fruiting on 130+ common Indian tree species

Recording projectAsia

Recruit school students to track flowering and fruiting on trees they already walk past

Australia's national fungal recording scheme, with nearly 5,000 observers on its annual hunt

Recording projectAustralia

Join or copy Australia's national fungal hunt, one of few schemes treating fungi as a recording target

Report UK hedgehog sightings and map the holes they move through between gardens

Recording projectUK

Map the holes animals move through between gardens, which is how a street becomes connected habitat

France's volunteer bat acoustic monitoring, by fixed point, car transect or roost count, with automated call identification. In French

Recording projectEurope

Adopt a bat acoustic protocol with automated call identification already built in, if you read French

Volunteer nest-box monitoring for hazel dormouse across the UK

Recording projectUK

Report a dormouse sighting, or base your own nest-box monitoring on an established national database