Bird Study publishes high quality papers relevant to the sphere of interest of the British Trust for Ornithology: broadly defined as field ornithology; especially when related to evidence-based bird conservation. Papers are especially welcome on: patterns of distribution and abundance, movements, habitat preferences, developing field census methods, ringing and other techniques for marking and tracking birds.

Bird Study concentrates on birds that occur in the Western Palearctic. This includes research on their biology outside of the Western Palearctic, for example on wintering grounds in Africa. Bird Study also welcomes papers from any part of the world if they are of general interest to the broad areas of investigation outlined above.

Bird Study publishes the following types of articles:
-Original research papers of any length
-Short original research papers (less than 2500 words in length)
-Scientific reviews
-Forum articles covering general ornithological issues, including non-scientific ones
-Short feedback articles that make scientific criticisms of papers published recently in the Journal.