Butterflies are relatively easy to identify compared to many other types of wildlife, but can still prove a challenge, especially if they are very active and if you are new to butterfly recording.

If you are not completely sure of the identity of a butterfly that you see in the garden it is best not to enter the sighting. If in doubt, leave it out!

To help with identification, from the Submit sightings page you can click the 'i' symbol on any species to see more information and photographs of that butterfly. Or you may wish to borrow or buy an identification guidebook to take out into the garden with you. When your records are checked by skilled volunteers via iRecord, you may receive feedback on the identification that could help improve your knowledge and future recording.

There are several different schemes, locally and nationally, to record butterflies. We don't want you to enter your garden butterfly sightings more than once. Not only is this extra effort for you but it also creates duplicate records. So, if you take part in the Garden Butterfly Survey you do not need to put the same sightings into other recording systems. Your Garden Butterfly Survey records will be passed on to Butterfly Conservation's local branches and County Recorders, and made accessible to Local Environmental Records Centres.  Our advice is to choose one scheme for your garden sightings.

An exception is the Big Butterfly Count – you may want to take part in this annual snapshot survey from within your garden. Please do, but don’t enter the same count into the Garden Butterfly Survey as well. Or alternatively you could take part in the Big Butterfly Count from other locations.

If you previously participated in the Garden Butterfly Survey from our old website (2016-2022) you will need to register again on this new site, thank you for your support and for joining again.

You enter the location of your garden during registration by clicking on a map or entering a grid reference. You also give a 'site name' such as the nearest town, borough or village. When you view your own records you'll see the accurate location and the site name.

When Butterfly Conservation and iRecord Verifiers view your records they will also see full details, so your butterfly observations can be checked and any feedback can be provided. Butterfly Conservation and iRecord Verifiers can also download Garden Butterfly Survey records with full details to add them to Butterflies for the New Millennium database and local County Recorder databases that they manage and share.

Other users of iRecord or other Garden Butterfly Survey users cannot view or download your records with full location details in the public view. They can see your name and the garden location blurred to the nearest 1Km without a site name.

Your full record details may be shared, including publicly, according to the Privacy Notice and the Terms of Use. Please read these to learn more about how your personal data and butterfly records are processed, stored and shared.

Your butterfly sightings (but not your email) will be immediately accessible to any organisation or registered users of iRecord and they will be able to use them for non-commercial purposes. iRecord also enables your sightings to be seen and checked by butterfly experts associated with the Garden Butterfly Survey and Butterflies for the New Millennium recording scheme, including Butterfly Conservation staff and volunteers (also known as County Recorders). These individuals will additionally have special access to your email address for their role in checking (verifying) your sightings. 

You may be contacted via the email address you provide if there are any queries about your sightings. This vital process of verification means data are checked and, where necessary adjusted, before any records are added to the UK butterfly recording scheme (Butterflies for the New Millennium) database.

Other organisations such as Local Environmental Records Centres, other conservation bodies and scientific researchers may also access the butterfly records from iRecord or from Butterfly Conservation to support their work. County Recorders may include copies of your records within the local datasets they manage. Your records might be published, for example as part of a distribution map and dataset.

Your Garden Butterfly Survey sightings will not be used as part of the Big Butterfly Count as this has a different methodology (requiring a 15 minute count of specific target species during a short period each summer), so please take part in the Big Butterfly Count separately from the Garden Butterfly Survey. 

Further detail of how your personal data and records are processed, stored and shared can be found in the Privacy Notice and Terms of Use.

All sorts of gardens can provide a safe home for butterflies, if managed sensitively. As well as private domestic gardens, you can take part in the Garden Butterfly Survey in a shared, communal garden, community garden or at your allotment. When you register your garden you can tell us which type it is.

If you want to record butterflies anywhere else, please join one of our other schemes.

To enter a sighting, you first need to sign in (or sign up if this is your first visit to the new website).

Next, click the Submit Sightings menu link. A form will open on the screen. Select the date of your sighting and the survey garden name. The grid reference for your survey garden will now appear automatically and the garden butterfly photographs for your survey region will also appear below. You can click on the 'i' symbol for more information and images of a species.

Find the species you want to record. It is likely to be shown among the garden butterfly photographs open on the form. If not, then click on 'Other species' to expand the list until you locate the correct species.

Click in the empty box below the image of the species you saw. Type the maximum number of that species that you saw in the survey garden at any one time that day. The box will turn green. You can also add a photograph by clicking on the camera symbol for a species.

When you've added all the sightings for that date, scroll down to the bottom of the page and press the blue Submit button. 

From the home screen, click Sign Up in the Join In panel. Now on the registration page complete the fields with your details and your garden’s details.

Click to submit and you will receive an automatic authentication email to confirm the email address and create a password. When this arrives (this could take a few minutes) click the link and your account is confirmed.

To log into your account next time, click Sign In on the home page top right menu (or also from the footer). Enter your username or email and your password created during registration and click 'sign in'. If you have forgotten your password or username you can follow the links to reset this information.

If you previously participated in the survey from our old website you will need to register again on this new site, thank you for your support and for joining again. Please see our other FAQs.

We want to know which butterfly species are in your garden and how many of them are present throughout the year. Sign up and tell us a few facts about your garden. Then  throughout the year you can log your sightings through this website. There is no set method, you don’t have to spend a particular length of time looking and you can submit records as often as you wish. However, it is helpful for the results if you check your garden at least monthly in reasonable weather so we get a year-round picture.  When counting, please note the maximum number of each species present in the garden at the time. Butterflies can be very active so try not to count the same individual more than once. You should not enter negative records (i.e. when you have looked for butterflies in your garden but not seen any). 

The Garden Butterfly Survey is a UK citizen science project that anyone can take part in if they have regular access to a private or shared garden (including allotments). Participants share their observations of butterflies in gardens through this website and, when collated together, these data help Butterfly Conservation and others to understand how butterflies are faring in the UK's gardens. Butterfly Conservation run the survey because we'd like to assess the importance of gardens as habitat for butterflies and determine how people can best manage their gardens to help boost butterfly populations. Sightings and information submitted about gardens will help answer these questions. The survey scheme is set up specifically for gardens and you can share sightings from any time of year. This is different from Butterfly Conservation’s other schemes and surveys which focus on other habitats, or take place over only part of the year. Please note: your Garden Butterfly Survey sightings will not form part of the Big Butterfly Count.