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Old trees and hidden habitat
Yews, stone walls, hedges and undisturbed edges can support birds, insects, bats and fungi.
Oxfordshire pilot now growing
Discover the wildlife hiding in historic churchyards.
Wild Churchyards records birds, bats and biodiversity in old churchyards — places where heritage, ancient trees, quiet grassland and wildlife meet.
1 day + 1 night recording goal per church
Birds first with bats and habitats next
Open, local, useful for communities and conservation
Churchyards are some of our most overlooked wildlife places.
Many are over-managed, but they often contain old trees, old stone, quiet corners and grassland that has escaped intensive use.
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Heritage meets ecology
Each site has a human story and a wildlife story. We want to bring both together.
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Recording without disturbance
Small passive recorders can listen for birds and bats without needing people on site all day.
Our first bold goal: record every church in Oxfordshire.
We want at least one good day and night of biodiversity recording at every church — building a county-wide picture of what lives in these historic places.
Oxfordshire recording progress
Placeholder progress for now — ready to connect to real site data later.
Bird data at the heart of every church page.
Each church can become a small wildlife profile: species, activity through the day, habitat notes, photographs and future surveys.
42Example bird species
704Churches mapped
24hDay and night listening
1Shared county dataset
Explore by church, village or habitat.
Map placeholder — this can become Leaflet/Mapbox using your church GeoJSON.
Choose a church
Browse a map of recorded and unrecorded sites across Oxfordshire.
See what was heard
View bird detections, activity charts and notable species for each site.
Add local knowledge
Volunteers and communities can help with habitat notes, history and future visits.
Improve churchyard management
The data can support lighter mowing, habitat patches and better decisions for wildlife.
Help us listen to the wild side of churchyards.
We’re looking for volunteers, churches, local wildlife groups and partners who want to help record, understand and protect nature in historic places.