Get started with iRecord...

See also How to switch your account into Training mode if you want to try things out before adding records 'for real'.

Jump to:

• Get started
• Submit a wildlife sighting
• Submit a list of records 
• Amend or delete a record
• Explore my own records

Get started

1. Click on create new account on the home page
2. Enter a user name, your e-mail address and your name.
3. Read and accept the Terms and Conditions.
4. You will be sent a verification e-mail.  Follow the link to set up your account.
5. You can change your account details and edit your recording preferences at any time by clicking ‘My Account’ in the top right corner and selecting the ‘Edit’ tab.
6. You will need to log in to carry out any of the activities described below.
7. See also "How to switch your account into Training mode" if you want to try things out before adding records 'for real'.

See "How to switch your account into Training mode" if you want to try things out before adding records 'for real'.

Submit a wildlife sighting

1. Select ‘Enter a casual record’ from the ‘Record’ tab
2. Type in the common or scientific name of your species and select the correct one from the dropdown options. You can also type 2 letters from the genus and 3 from the species name to find species by abbreviation, e.g. "chren" will find Chilocorus renipustulatus.
3. Click ‘upload photo’ to add one or more photographs of your wildlife sighting.  You do not have to upload a photo, but it will help to verify your record.
4. Type a grid reference into the box or left click on the map to show where you made your wildlife sighting.  You can record at any resolution from 10km to 10 metres – the resolution changes as you zoom in or out.  If you click outside the area covered by the OS National Grid, the reference system used will automatically change from British National Grid to GPS Latitude and Longitude (also known as WGS84).
5. Fill in as much information as you can in the other boxes.  Boxes marked * must be filled in.
6. Click ‘submit’ in the bottom left hand corner.

Submit a list of records made in the same place on the same date

1. Select ‘Enter a list of records’ from the ‘Record’ tab
2. Enter the species you saw, any information about them and photos if possible on the ‘what did you see’ tab.
3. Click on the ‘when and where was it’ tab to enter the date and location of your records
4. Add an overall comment if you wish, and click ‘submit’.

Amend or delete a record

1. Select ‘My records’ from the ‘Explore’ tab.
2. Click on ‘edit’ next to the record you wish to change or delete.
3. Click on X next to the species name to delete the record, or change any of the fields you wish, including adding or removing photos, then click ‘submit’.

Explore my own records

• Select ‘My records’ from the ‘Explore’ tab to view your records on an interactive map and in a table.
• Select ‘My Photos’ from the ‘Explore’ tab to view your records on an interactive map and in a table with photos embedded.
• Select ‘My Photo Gallery’ from the ‘Explore’ tab to view a thumbnail gallery of all your photos.  Use the filters at the top to find photos by date or taxonomic group, and click on a thumbnail to see the enlarged photo.
• Select ‘Recorder League’ from the ‘Explore’ tab to see how you rank compared to other recorders in terms of number of records submitted and the number of species and taxonomic groups recorded.
• Select the ‘Summarise’ tab to see charts and graphs of your data.

Explore records submitted by another user

1. Select ‘All Records’ from the ‘Explore tab’.
2. Type a user name into the blank box at the top of the ‘Recorder’ column in the table below the map (you can use * as a wild card character to match part of the name you don't know) and then click anywhere outside the box.

Explore records of a particular species or taxonomic group

1. Select ‘All Records’ from the ‘Explore tab’.
2. Type a species name into the blank ‘Species’ box or a higher taxon name into the blank ‘taxon group’ box at the top of the table (you can use * as a wild card character to match part of the species name you don't know) and then click anywhere outside the box.

Explore records for a particular geographic area

1. Select ‘All Records’ from the ‘Explore tab’.
2. Pan and zoom to your area of interest and use the query tool (? Icon) to select records on the interactive map.  The details will appear in the table below the map.

Download records

1. Select records of interest to you using the methods described above.
2. Click ‘download this report’ in bottom right corner to download a spreadsheet file of the selected records in .CSV (comma separated values) format.
3. Ensure that you comply with the iRecord Terms and Conditions, for example you must not publish the records, exploit them for commercial or academic research purposes or pass them on to a third party.

Know whether records have been verified

• You will receive a message on the My notifications page (on the Explore menu) when one of your records is verified by an expert.

• Records which have been verified are marked in the table and appear as green squares on the map. When viewing your own records, you will also see any suspect records marked and rejected records marked .
• Records which have not yet been verified appear as blue squares on the map.  The colour of their border indicates the recorder’s level of certainty in their identification (green, amber or red)
• Records which have been checked by an expert and determined as dubious appear as amber squares, and records which have been rejected appear as red squares.
• The gold stars next to the records in the table indicate the recorder’s level of certainty in their identification.
  • =certain
  • =likely
  • =possible.
• Click on ‘My Account’ and ‘My Data Summary’ to see how many of your own records have been verified.

iRecord incorporates verification rules developed by national recording schemes for NBN Record Cleaner.  Automated checks are run every 30 minutes to highlight records which are outside the known spatial or temporal range of the species, and records of species which are difficult to identify.  If your record is highlighted by Record Cleaner you will receive a message on the home page, with the option of editing the record or simply removing the message.

Please note that records highlighted by the automated verification rules are not necessarily incorrect!

Verify records submitted by others

Contact us at irecord@ceh.ac.uk to let us know which taxonomic group you would like to verify and which recording scheme you are associated with.

Find out more

Visit the iRecord forum to chat with other users, ask questions and make suggestions to improve the site.