Big Butterfly Count may be over but butterflies are still flying. If you enjoyed watching butterflies this summer, why not download our free iRecord Butterflies app and carry on counting?

Butterfly Conservation’s iRecord Butterflies smartphone app was created for general butterfly identification and recording, wherever you go and at any time of year. Launched in April, the app has already proved incredibly successful with nearly 28,000 sightings submitted by 1900 users from almost all parts of the UK (see map). iRecord Butterflies is completely free and is available on iOS and Android devices. (There are no plans at present to develop the app for other platforms – sorry!)

iRecord Butterflies will guide you through the identification of any butterfly that you see in the UK. You can compare you own photo with those from the app’s extensive image library, filter species by colour, pattern and size, and see distribution maps and identification tips for each butterfly.

The iRecord Butterflies app is much more than just an aide to butterfly identification. It provides an easy, single-step route to contributing your butterfly sightings to Butterfly Conservation’s long-running national recording scheme. Such sightings (termed ‘records’) provide the essential foundation for much-needed conservation work to help the UK’s declining butterflies.

The national butterfly recording scheme has collected sightings stretching back several centuries and these enable us to see how butterflies are faring and to target conservation effort at those most at risk of extinction. The records can also be used by scientists to understand the impacts of climate change and other environmental issues on our butterfly populations. The records underpin the management of important butterfly sites, help protect habitats through the planning system and enable Butterfly Conservation to produce regular State of the UK’s Butterflies reports, local and national atlases and Red Lists of priority species.

Simply by sending in some basic information about the butterflies that you enjoy watching, even if just from your garden, you can make a real contribution to their conservation. The iRecord Butterflies app makes submitting you sightings really easy. Once you’ve identified the butterfly, enter a few simple pieces of information, such as the number that you saw and a place name (important so that the sightings can be checked on maps) and submit. The app will automatically calculate where you are (using the GPS in the Smartphone) and provide a grid reference for your sighting.

And if a personal recommendation helps persuade you, I’ve been using the new app for all my butterfly sightings this year (apart from my Big Butterfly Count ones of course) and have found it to be incredibly easy, reliable and convenient. Now I can record butterflies on a family walk without holding everyone else up!

Get the app from iTunes
Get the app from Google Store

Richard Fox
Surveys Manager
Follow me on Twitter: @RichardFoxBC