Birda is a birdwatching app and community aimed at curious people who want to deepen their connection with nature, make a positive impact and be part of an inclusive community that can guide their birding journey.
We developed Birda because we believe nature is for everyone, and nature needs everyone on her side.
The heartbeat of Birda is its nature-loving community. Your flock will be there for you.
If you don’t know which species you’ve seen, simply post a picture of it and flag it as ‘unidentified’. When you do this, your followers are notified and asked to help with identifying what you’ve seen. Have fun watching the votes fly in for various species before accepting the suggestion you think best fits your feathered friend.
Make birding even more fun by keeping an eye on what your friends, family, or followers have spotted. Compete to collect species and unlock achievements.
Biodiversity is under threat worldwide. It’s in desperate need of protection and restoration.
But people are usually only motivated to care about nature once they’ve experienced it. We’re here to help them do that. We want to encourage as many people as possible to enjoy our environment.
With Birda, anyone can connect with nature, help to conserve it by using the app, and be inspired to fight for its future in other ways.
In 2018, Natalie and John pivoted their wildlife platform into a global birdwatching community called Chirp Birding. By 2020 Chirp had a beta version of its website and apps up and running, with a small but engaged community of early adopters.
Looking to build on what they’d learned from Chirp and develop something better, the couple secured a significant round of investment, moved from South Africa to the UK, and brought several key international team members, including co-founder and CTO Dom Barker, on board.
In under nine months, the new team hatched Birda: a user-centric community platform for anyone who loves nature and being outdoors. You don’t even have to have been birding before to use it!
Founders Natalie and John birding in South Africa
“The healing power of nature was paramount in getting me through my struggles with cancer. It’s motivated me to do more to protect our natural world, inspire others to do the same, and leave a legacy for my daughters.”
“Having worked for two large multinationals, I realised that the corporate life was not what I wanted. Together, Natalie and I had an idea to turn our passion for wildlife and the outdoors into a business. We launched our first website and mobile app in 2013 for users to share their wildlife sightings from parks and reserves across Southern Africa. Life’s been an epic adventure ever since, and I look forward to continuing it with Birda.”
My favourite bird:
Böhm's Spinetail
My favourite bird:
Red Kite
My favourite bird:
Common Kingfisher
My favourite bird:
Spoonbill
My favourite bird:
Puffin
My favourite bird:
Secretary Bird
My favourite bird:
Robin
My favourite bird:
Barn Owl
My favourite bird:
Fulmar
My favourite bird:
Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher
My favourite bird:
Böhm's spinetail
My favourite bird:
Secretarybird
My favourite bird:
Red kite
My favourite bird:
Robin
My favourite bird:
Barn Owl
My favourite bird:
Spoonbill
My favourite bird:
Puffin
My favourite bird:
Fulmar
We’re always finding ways to improve our technology. Our expert team ships updates and new features as soon as they have been thoroughly tested.
But more than the tech, the Birda community is at the heart of everything we do. We actively encourage it to be welcoming, inclusive, and inspirational. We want you to feel safe and supported as you get to know the birdlife that lives around you. So, we’re constantly looking for ways to improve community interactions, and we keep a very close eye on security.
We also aim to provide exciting opportunities for you to compete for rewards and prizes through challenges sponsored by our partner organisations. We choose these partners carefully, always making sure that they share our values and passion for protecting our planet.
