A new bird count trail has been launched in Dunedin’s Town Belt.

The Town Belt Bird Count is a trail of 10 signs threaded along the city green belt where the public can help count birds living in the area.

The signs are dotted from Prospect Park along Queens Drive to near Jubilee Park.

At each sign people stop for five minutes and make a record of all the birds they see and hear by scanning a QR code which links to a website. The website also provides photos and audio clips of all the birds they’re likely to encounter.

Visitors can walk, bike or drive to the signs in any order, or just visit one sign, and at any time of the day.

Each record will contribute to a picture of how bird populations are changing. Over time this will help measure the success of possum and rat trapping and forest restoration work happening in the Town Belt.

The project has been developed by Birds NZ and supported by City Sanctuary.

Birds NZ’s Otago Branch has been monitoring the Town Belt’s birds for the past 5 years. More than 1,570 counts have been completed and 21,785 birds counted.

At least twenty species of birds are regularly seen in the Town Belt and nearly half of them are native to New Zealand, including kererū, bellbirds/korimako, tūī, fantails/piwakawaka, and grey warblers/riroriro.

Over the coming years, its hoped that rarer native species such as South Island robin/kakaruwai, tomtit/ngirungiru, brown creeper/pīpipi and kākā return to the city’s forests.

City Sanctuary has hundreds of possum, rat and stoat traps in parks and public reserves around Dunedin City, including along the Town Belt. Predator trapping will help prevent chicks and eggs being predated and increase food available for birds.

The bird counts submitted by the public will help City Sanctuary understand how native birds are responding to fewer invasive predators in the bush.

Visit the trail website here: birdcount.nz