Setting up your first alert

Alerts ping you the moment a target species turns up where you can reach it. This walkthrough sets up an alert from scratch — bittern within 25 km of home, by email — in five steps.

Alerts are the difference between hearing about a bird two days late and being there at dawn the next morning. Every alert pairs a what (one or more species) with a where (radius around home, drawn area, or whole UK) and a when (real-time, daily digest, weekly digest). Alerts live on your account. If you haven't signed up yet, you'll be prompted to before saving. What an alert can watch for An alert can be scoped three ways: Radius around home — set during onboarding. The simplest setup; good…