Our projects

The Norfolk Bat Survey is cancelled for the time being in response to COVID-19.

Our projects aim to improve our understanding of bat distribution and activity by providing an opportunity for anyone to take advantage of recent advances in technology for automating the capture and analysis of acoustic data for bats. Currently we are conducting bat surveys across Norfolk and parts of Suffolk.

To achieve this, we have set up a number of Bat Monitoring Centres in these areas, from which you can borrow equipment for a few days to take part in the survey. In return we will let you know what species were recorded. The survey season runs from the mid-May until the end of September, so plenty of time to take part.

We are limited by the number of detectors, so if you are interested you need to be quick in expressing interest and reserving your 1-km square to survey. Once you have reserved a square, you will be able to reserve a  detector to use.

Please note that this survey requires three different points (ideally at least 200-metres apart) to be surveyed ideally on consecutive nights within a 1-km square (survey methods). To choose a survey square please sign up through our Norfolk sign up map.


The Norfolk Bat Survey was launched by the British Trust for Ornithology in April 2013, to improve our understanding of bats and support their conservation. Since this time, the project has analysed 1.9 million bat recordings from across the county.

If you have any queries about the Norfolk project or equipment, please contact Hazel Evans or Stuart Newson at BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU, Tel: 01842 750050, Email: norfolkbatsurvey@bto.org