About us

Everyone who loves nature should easily find the species of the bird he/she has seen. Have you seen a beautiful bird you do not know? Do you wonder what bird it is? Exactly for that purpose www.whatbirdisthis.org has been built. Of course there are beautiful bird-guides. But they have the disadvantage that you have to leaf through your book. When you have reached the right page, the bird has already flown off. On the internet this can be done in a smarter way. Whatbirdisthis presents an easy online bird-guide with the birds of Western Europe. Ultimately, we want to describe all 10,500 bird-species of the world. The aim is that you can easily find what you've seen.

Whatbirdisthis was founded by Gerard Brinkman from Castricum, the Netherlands. He is an enthusiastic amateur birdwatcher who has long felt the need of a proper bird identification site. In the board of the new foundation he became chairman. In addition Herman Verhagen and Roel Mathies, both avid nature lovers, joined the board.

2015

In 2015 the site has steadily grown. To ensure a further expansion a crowdfund-campaign was held. This led to a financially healthy organisation, the necessary resources to finance the expansion are available. In 2014 there were 276 daily visitors to the site. In 2015 this number increased to 465 sessions per day. Most visitors (80 %)  find the site because of the daily ads generated by Google. The remaining 20% ​​of the number of visitors are coming directly or via facebook. Approximately 78% of the visits is by new visitors. There are still many new people who use the site.

In 2015 two important activities started. The first is a crowdfund action intended to raise € 6000, -. This action has taken a lot of time in May and June 2015. Ultimately, the financial goal has been achieved. The crowdfund action also has generated free publicity. In local media, but also in the Margriet of July 16 – a well-known womens’ weekly magazine- an article was written about the site.

The second activity,  launched in the autumn, was the actual revision of the site. With the builders of the site there has been a discussion to increase the attractiveness of the home-page and thus to ensure that people do use the options. A second goal was to expand the site with new species. The ambition is to extend this to all species that have ever been seen in the Netherlands .

The financial reserves are intended to finance the planned expansion in spring 2016. On the expenditures the repay of a loan from 2014 started

2016

In 2016 we have expanded and improved the site. At this moment more than 700 Western European species are listed. At the end of 2016 we will evaluate the current advertisement policy. It is the aim to cover the annual costs with donations and advertisement.

In order to expand this site and also to make other online nature guides we invite your assistance.