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PrintBackyard Science: Join the 2010 Great Backyard Bird Count!
Fifteen minutes, a backyard birdfeeder, and a computer with Internet access.
That’s all you need to contribute to a nationwide science project!
Bird watchers coast to coast will take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12th through Monday, February 15th. If you participate in this free project, you will be one of tens of thousands of volunteers of all levels of birding experience, novice to expert, who count birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges. The event is coordinated by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.
Why do it?
One of the reasons I enjoy the GBBC is because I can sit at my kitchen table in my sweats and fuzzy slippers, sip a cup of hot tea and contribute to serious science. The Count is a big event, and it’s like taking an instant snapshot of birds across the county.
If you and your family can identify a few birds at your feeders, such as cardinals, blue jays, tree sparrows or juncos, you’ll help researchers learn more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them.
The Count is a wonderful opportunity for families, homeschoolers and adults to get involved in meaningful science. It has great appeal to students who enjoy interfacing with computers since the results must be entered online, and results can be seen in real time on the web site during the event.
Ready? Here’s how to get involved!
Visit the Great Backyard Bird Count Web site (www.birdsource.org/gbbc) in advance for more information about the count.
Participate on any or all of the dates during the count. You must observe birds at your feeders or on a walk at a nature center, park or other natural area for at least 15 minutes or longer if you have time. If you are counting birds at your feeders, you can count intermittently throughout the day. You will submit a separate checklist on-line for each new day and each location.
Write down the greatest number of individuals of each species you see at any one time. If I see three goldfinches at my feeder at 10:00 AM, and at 10:20 AM I see seven at the feeder, I will record seven. If you take a walk in a park and see one male cardinal in a tree, and farther on the walk you observe a male and a female cardinal in a shrub, you can log a total of three cardinals if you are reasonably sure the male is not the same bird you saw earlier.
When you're finished for the day, enter your results at birdsource.org/gbbc. You'll see a button marked "Enter Your Checklists!" on the home page beginning on the first day of the count. It will remain active until the deadline for data submission on March 1st. You can also click on “Explore the Results” to obtain real-time information with maps showing where people are recording birds, up to date results for your state and what species have been seen where.
Missed it?
If you missed the Great Backyard Bird Count, but still want to contribute to bird science, you can record your bird-watching observations online anytime at eBird.org. Like the GBBC, eBird allows bird watchers to explore data from around the continent and keep track of their own observations over time with charts and maps.
GBBC Trivia
During the Great Backyard Bird Count 2009:
- Number of checklists submitted: 93,629
- Total Species Observed: 619
- Total Individual Birds Counted: 11,550,200
