Become a volunteer counting butterflies!!
Help us counting butterflies and moths, it will increase our knowledge of them and we could protect them better. There are already thousands of volunteers throughout the world helping in butterfly conservation.
If you would like to join eBMS and collaborate in the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme you just need to register in this website. Follow this link to the My Data section and you will find a Quick Guide for starting with butterfly monitoring.
- Join one of the biggest citizen science networks
- Monitoring butterflies in your area, you will contribute to science
- Other taxa apart from diurnal and nocturnal butterflies like bumblebees and dragonflies can be counted.
Butterfly records: see all the records submitted to eBMS from many different places around the world, go to eBMS data -> Explore online data
Watch explicative videos on how to use the eBMS website on the BCE Youtube Channel or check the pdf of the eBMS Guidelines with all the explanations
ButterflyCount app: count butterflies easily with your phone, while doing a transect or 15-minute counts. Download the app and start discovering the species in your area!
This is the home page of the electronic Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (eBMS). It originates from a joint initiative of Butterfly Conservation Europe and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. This site began with a focus on Europe but is growing across the world as other countries join. This website is a home for promoting butterfly monitoring schemes and consists of the following activities:
- A collation of national Butterfly Monitoring Scheme datasets within Europe - the eBMS partnership
- A data system for establishing butterfly monitoring sites in regions currently lacking a national scheme. Click here to access the list of partners.
- The home for projects on Butterfly Monitoring
- A place to promote other projects that are affiliated with butterfly monitoring schemes
News of eBMS:
- EU Grassland Butterfly Index 1991 - 2024 Technical Report
We are pleased to inform you that we have updated the EU Grassland Butterfly Index, 1990-2024. We produced a technical report to describe the indicator, it represents a major update up to 2024, through the incorporation of more and expanded datasets, schemes and the 27 EU countries (more than 6,000 transects, and 17 species). A major output from the EMBRACE project funded by the European Commission. This would not have been possible without the effort of all the collaborators, national schemes, and volunteers that provide voluntary the data to eBMS database. Our appreciation to all of them.
The EU Grassland Butterfly Index shows a decline of 47% since 1991. This report provides an essential message from scientists to policymakers - that butterflies are still declining at an alarming rate across the EU and that urgent action is required to protect and restore habitats to reverse this trend, not only for butterflies but also for other wild insect pollinators and their ecosystem services.
- Explanatory videos of the eBMS website
On the BCE YouTube channel, you can find several explanatory videos to better understand the eBMS website: how to create a new account, how to register a transect and its visits, and much more. Visit the channel to discover more.
- Final results of the ABLE project
For two years, we have been working on the European Pilot Project ABLE (Assessing ButterfLies in Europe) with incredible success in promoting and improving butterfly monitoring in Europe and producing high-quality Butterfly Indicators and useful tools for volunteers and coordinators.
You can find the results of the ABLE project: final reports, new schemes created, all material, new partners, and more. Go to the ABLE results section to discover more
- the eBMS App is updated!
You can download and use the new multilingual eBMS app, looking for "ButterflyCount" in AppleStore or App Store for Android.
It was created to do 15-min Count, counting butterflies for 15 minutes anywhere in Europe. The GPS tracks your route, area, or point of your search. You can also draw the recorded area. All transects registered on the eBMS website can be also done with the app! Just download it and log in with your eBMS account.
ButterflyCount has Picture Guides to help with butterfly identification offline. The app is translated into more than 10 languages and has the latest full list of the different butterfly species found across Europe – around 500 in total. You can record butterflies wherever you want!
To discover more go to eBMS data -> eBMS mobile application and see the new story in CEH
- Manual for Butterfly Transect Counts
A Manual with the information necessary to set up a transect and know the basic rules to follow in every visit to the transect. Download the Manual for Butterfly Transect Count to know everything about transects, the method used in the Butterfly Monitoring Schemes in Europe. This provides a robust method to collect butterfly monitoring data and allows us to compare between transects.
This manual is translated into several languages (Romania, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Slovak, Polish...). you can find the manual translated on the page, Materials to download other languages.