21 June 2026 · BirdRadar
Hello, BirdRadar — what we watch for, and how this blog works
BirdRadar started as a question: why is it so hard to know when something interesting just landed at your local airport? Plane spotters have radios, flight-tracking websites and group chats, but no single feed that says "a Qatari royal jet just touched down at Heathrow" the moment it does. We built BirdRadar to be that feed — delivered straight to Telegram, where you already are.
What counts as "rare"
Our monitor reads live ADS-B and MLAT data from the Wingbits ground-station network and flags an arrival when it matches one of six categories:
- State and royal-family aircraft — heads of state, royal flights, government VIPs.
- Military transports and patrol aircraft — C-17, C-130, P-8, KC-46, and the like.
- Special and retro liveries — anniversary paint, sports-team wraps, retro schemes.
- First-ever airport visits — an aircraft type or registration that's never been logged at this field before.
- Confirmed diversions — flights re-routed mid-air to your airport.
- Ultra-rare types — An-124, Beluga XL, B-52, Stratolaunch, etc.
50 airports worldwide
At launch we cover 50 airports across Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. London Heathrow is free for everyone — a permanent "what does this thing actually do" preview. Any of the other 49 unlocks for 75 ⭐ a month (roughly $0.99), paid entirely inside Telegram with no card or web checkout.
Don't see your airport on the list? Send /request <IATA> to the bot and we'll add it on the next pass.
What this blog will become
Starting shortly, this blog will publish a daily round-up of the most interesting sightings from across the BirdRadar network — the unusual military movements, the surprise diversions, the special liveries that turned up where nobody expected them. If a Qatar Amiri 747 lands at LGW, you'll read about it here the next morning. We'll keep the posts short and link out to flight tracks where they're public.
Get the live version of all this on Telegram: @BirdRadar_bot.