Join the Europe-wide Butterfly Counting Survey

Why count butterflies?

Butterflies are good indicators for the quality of habitats. Many butterfly species are highly dependent on the availability of certain food plants and the presence of landscape features such as hedges, trees or forest edges.

Butterflies are therefore sensitive to changes in habitat quality, land use intensity and landscape structure. For this reason, the EU has decided to include the Grassland butterfly index as one of three indicators of the quality of agricultural ecosystems.

How can you participate?

Counting butterflies is fun, easy and takes 15 minutes of your time. All you need is an observation site (ideally agricultural land) and the Butterfly Count app installed on your phone.

Instructions:

1. Download the Butterfly Count app (App store / Google Play) Choose Agroecology-Transect as project.

2. Choose an observation site (ca 500m2). For best result do the counting in two different spots of the site. 

3. Register the chosen site online here. We need some information about the characteristics of the site, such as the size of the field, the crops grown on it, neighbouring habitats, etc. These details help us draw conclusions about how certain agricultural practices and landscape features affect butterfly diversity.

4. Spend 15 minutes on the site. Walk around, try to identify and report the butterflies you see.

5. Preferably, visit the site again after two or three weeks. See if anything has changes.

6. Spread the word! Tell about this survey to your friends, family, neighbours. Together we can learn so much more about butterflies!