Breeding bird atlas

The Austrian Breeding Bird Atlas 2013-2018, published in 2024, is the most up-to-date and comprehensive source of information on the occurrence of breeding birds in Austria and changes in their distribution over the last few decades.

What is the Breeding bird atlas?

The breeding bird atlas presents the distribution of all 235 bird species that bred in Austria in the period 2013-2018 on 680 pages and compares these results with the first Austrian breeding bird atlas (1981-1985). During the six field survey years, over 2,300 citizen scientists collected more than 2.1 million data records for this project. Over the following years, the data was checked and analysed - distribution maps, model maps, elevation diagrams and comparative analyses with the first breeding bird atlas were produced. Over 50 authors were involved in the creation of the species texts and over 40 photographers made their images available free of charge. After 30 years, all these contributions have resulted in a new standard work of ornithology.

The project was supported by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management and the Federal Ministry for Climate Action as part of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

The Austrian Breeding Bird Atlas 2013-2018 has been published by Verlag Naturhistorisches Museum Wien and can be ordered for EUR 95 at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Join in

The project has been completed and participation is unfortunately no longer possible.

Tasks and roles in the project

• Observers: Surveyed the birds according to the specified counting method in their free time.
• Quadrant allocation: Province-specific allocation of open quadrants to the respective observers, targeted addressing of people to close mapping gaps, distribution of mapping documents, first contact point for questions and problems
• Organisation ("Atlas Team"): Organisation of all work steps necessary for mapping, information and training of observers, organisation of methodological workshops for new observers, organisation of atlas conferences in poorly observed areas etc., data verification, carrying out of evaluation and publication
• Planning: Small committee of experts that carried out the basic preparatory work for the counting method - elaboration of different variants, discussion of advantages and disadvantages, etc.
• Methods group: wider panel of experts who discussed the different counting methods and proposed the final method to be used
• Steering group BirdLife: Advice on organisational issues concerning the mapping, especially regarding the regional situation in the individual federal states
• Project steering group: Complete project management
• Project advisory Board: Advisory body, composed of representatives of important stakeholders and with an advisory function for the steering group

Citizen Science Seminar

In 2023, poject coordinator Norbert Teufelbauer held a lecture about the project (in German) as part of the lecture series "Citizen Science Seminar" at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). You can watch the video recording of the lecture down below. 

• Bird watching with binoculars Bird watching with binoculars
• Professional bird watching Professional bird watching
• Observation is more fun as a team! Observation is more fun as a team!
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