BirdID started as a study programme at Nord University in 2006. The purpose is to educate fieldworkers for bird monitoring, and increase the knowledge for recreational purposes.

The study was only available in norwegian in the beginning, but later the webpage was translated to english and other european languages. We started to collaborate with birding associations in other european countries, that used our website for teaching and had local teachers working on behalf of Nord University. The combining effect of online and field based teaching has received international attention, and we had in 2018 teaching of 20 classes in other countries than Norway. This practice was unfortunately reduced since then, due to stricter demands from the university that other countries could not fulfill.

Today there is luckily still some cooperation with other countries, and we offer a course on national level for non-norwegian countries that does not grant ECTs. This replaces the old national exams, and will still grant documentation of a students skills in bird identification. All countries can continue with formal ECT exams in Western Palearctic birds after the course. In this way will Nord University continue to increase the knowledge of birds all over Europe

Who are we?

Magne Husby

Magne is a professor at Nord University and has a lifetime of experience in research and bird identification. Magne is the founder and the brains behind BirdID, and is continuing to develop the project with new ideas.

Hilde Dørum

Hilde is an educated biologist, and has worked on several different projects related to ornithology, mostly in the field. At BirdID she works with administrating the many different aspects of the study programme.

We also have several expert guides that you will meet if you join the field courses!