The event takes place between 6-22 February and is organised by the GWCT (Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust) and sponsored by the NFU, providing a vital snapshot of the health of our cherished farmland birds.
The 2026 launch event took place at the trust’s Allerton Project in Leicestershire, where the very first count took place 12 years ago, in early February.
"Quiet revolution"
NFU Deputy President David Exwood was a guest speaker at the launch, and told a packed room about the importance of farmers' conservation work with farmland birds and highlighting it to a wider audience.
"It's really good to be supporting the launch of the Big Farmland Bird Count - it's such an important piece of work and the NFU is delighted to be sponsoring it," he said.
"I'm hugely interested in the birds on my farm and love going out and seeing them. We've tweaked our farming system to make it better: we went insecticide-free, are focusing completely on soil health and are creating more habitats for birds to thrive in. As a result, we're seeing some real positives, with snipes, starlings and sky larks very much in evidence.
"We're one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and we need to start telling the positive stories of the amazing work going on across the country to get even more farmers engaged in conservation work.
"There's a quiet revolution happening on our farms and farmland; attitudes are changing. Schemes like SFI, despite it's problems and challenges, are world leading. Giving farmers the choice in how they engage in environmental work and what works for them is really important. They've done that in their droves and we need to really passionate about telling those stories."
NFU Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland County Chair, Joe Stanley, who is Head of Sustainable Farming at the Allerton Project, then took the audience through the relentless, decades-long efforts by the project to balance food production with environmental work on its land.
The 80-strong crowd was then split into two groups to take an extensive walking tour of the Allerton Project's land and see that work first-hand.
They were escorted by knowledgeable staff who explained the painstaking endeavours to encourage birds and wider wildlife to flourish being undertaken at scale at the property.
Find out how you can take part in this year's count.