Backyard Bird Count

The Great Backyard Bird Count is the second weekend of February every year. You are invited to participate.You can help count birds from your school window, backyard or local nature area. Just sign up here:http://gbbc.birdcount.org/get-started/

This bird count takes place all over the world and allows individuals to become “citizen scientists”.

Here is what Cornell Lab and the Audubon Society says about the importance of this bird count:

Why count birds?
Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.

Scientists use information from the Great Backyard Bird Count, along with observations from other citizen-science projects, such as the Christmas Bird Count, Project FeederWatch, and eBird, to get the “big picture” about what is happening to bird populations. The longer these data are collected, the more meaningful they become in helping scientists investigate far-reaching questions, like these:

• How will the weather and climate change influence bird populations?

• Some birds, such as winter finches, appear in large numbers during some years but not others. Where are these species from year to year, and what can we learn from these patterns?

• How will the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years?

• How are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?

• What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?

If you have missed the window for this year’s bird count, don’t worry there are other times of year to count. There is a Christmas bird count and a year round bird count on Ebird.com. Click here to read more about Ebird’s year round count.

Participating in Citizen Science is inspiring! You feel connected to conservation scientists around the world. You will also be surprised by how many species of birds share your home. Nature is all around us!