The census of overwintering waterbirds celebrates its first 60 years

Coordinated in Italy by ISPRA, the Wetlands International project promotes the counting of waterbirds around mid-January across the entire European territory.

From 6 to 25 January 2026, surveys of overwintering waterbirds are being carried out in more than 2,000 Italian wetlands as part of the International Waterbird Census (IWC) project. The project is coordinated by ISPRA and relies on a network of over 500 expert surveyors and around 1,500 collaborators distributed throughout the country. With more than 30 years of continuous activity across the entire national territory, the IWC surveys represent one of Italy’s longest-running research projects, and certainly the leading one in terms of geographical coverage and regularity.

The 2026 marks the 60th anniversary of the IWC censuses.