iRecord Butterflies is a free app that will guide you through the identification of any butterfly that you see in the UK and allow you to add your sighting to millions of other valuable records that inform the work of Butterfly Conservation.

Download the app for free

Get iRecord Butterflies from iTunes
Get iRecord Butterflies from Google Store

1) Identify your sighting

You can compare your 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.

2) Tell us what you've seen

Add 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.

Records show how butterflies are faring so conservation effort can be targeted at those most at risk of extinction. They can help reveal the impact of climate change and other environmental issues on our butterfly populations. The data you send via iRecord Butterflies will be used to 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 your 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.

As a charity we rely heavily on donations to help fund our vital scientific research. Can you help us make the most of this data by donating below? Click to donate


Every sighting counts in the struggle to save our butterflies.

Get the app from iTunes


Get the app from Google Store

The iRecord Butterflies app was developed by Natural Apptitude thanks to funding and support from the Biological Records Centre at the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

Help us make the most of your data by making a donation below

By getting involved in recording and monitoring you’re helping us understand how butterflies are faring in your area. This helps us identify where our conservation work is needed most.

However, this work also needs funding, and every penny and pound you donate helps towards this.

In fact many of our success stories have benefited directly from donations. This includes the Yorkshire Dark Bordered Beauty, which showed a massive 622% increase as a result of our work. To find out more about projects which have benefited from donations, click here, or donate below. Thank you.

Donate to Butterfly Conservation