Garden Bird Watch - Contribution to research and conservation
Learn more about how the data collected from Garden Bird Watch contributes to conserving Singapore's garden birds through analysis and research.
Last updated 1 July 2026
Garden Bird Watch
Garden Bird Watch is a citizen science initiative by NParks to engage the community to collect important data on garden birds across Singapore. This data is analysed and used in research to better our understanding of bird ecology in Singapore, informing conservation efforts to sustain and enhance our native bird populations.
A Review of Garden Bird Watch (2015-2019)
"A Review of Garden Bird Watch" is a book published in 2020 that summarises five years of Garden Bird Watch data, featuring the survey trends of 50 garden bird species. The book is a testament of the commitment and support of all the citizen scientists who participated in Garden Bird Watch.
Overall, the preliminary data collected over the survey period showed that many of Singapore’s garden birds had either stable or increasing population trends. Of particular interest was the consistent increase in numbers of two nationally threatened species, the Oriental Pied Hornbill and Oriental Magpie-Robin. There was also an increase in the number of sightings of nectarivores, possibly as a result of the increased planting of native plants and the setting up of community gardens.
Data collected from the surveys has been applied to our conservation efforts for native birds, including the recovery of threatened species and key pollinators. Such efforts include the planting of native plants in our parks to provide food and habitat for native birds. The data gathered through Garden Bird Watch will help NParks to manage the balance in our parks for biodiversity conservation and recreation.
Tropical bird communities benefit from regular-shaped and naturalised urban green spaces with water bodies
This paper aimed to answer the question, "what are the factors that affect our local bird communities?", using data collected from Garden Bird Watch over 5 years, with a total of 64 sites surveyed.
The sites' spatial and land cover characteristics were computed and analysed against aggregate bird species richness and diversity per site.
The findings show that parks with larger core areas, reduced edge effects, and semi-natural vegetation support a significantly greater variety of birds. Furthermore, the presence of freshwater bodies and urban wetlands was found to be a crucial factor in boosting bird diversity across these green spaces.
The study contributes to the understanding of bird diversity at multiple scales in a highly developed tropical city, showing that the long-term data collected from Citizen Science programmes could further provide an opportunity to study ecosystem interactions in greater detail, and informs the planning of our parks, and conservation strategies.