Join A Global Bird Census In Your Backyard To Celebrate The Year of the Bird

Join the Great Backyard Bird Count between 16 to 19 February — anywhere in the world!

by GrrlScientist for Forbes | @GrrlScientist

NOTE: This piece was a Forbes Editor’s Pick.

Let’s go birding!
(Credit: Walton LaVonda / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Public Domain.)

Two months ago, I told you how much I miss participating in the annual Christmas Bird Counts. Sadly, there is nothing like it in the country where I now live. But there is another bird census that I — and you and absolutely everyone in the world — can participate in: the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC).

The GBBC is a global event that will take place from 16 to 19 February in your backyard or garden, on your balcony or school grounds, in parks, on hiking trails, nature reserves, and beaches — basically, anywhere you are, you can count wild birds. To participate, you simply have to create your own online account and count the birds that you see for at least 15 minutes on one or more count days, and report those numbers at birdcount.org. (More information on how to get started.) If you prefer reporting your birds on-the-go, you can download the free eBird App for your mobile phone.

This global event provides an opportunity for bird enthusiasts and citizen scientists to contribute data that scientists can use to understand how bird populations have been changing over the past twenty-one years. Already, scientists are using these data to better understand how local weather and climate change influence bird populations; how does the timing of bird migrations compare with past years; how bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, are affecting birds in different regions; what differences in bird diversity can be seen in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas; and why 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?

“The 2018 GBBC again promises to provide an important snapshot of bird occurrence in February,” said the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Marshall Iliff, who is the project leader of the eBird program. eBird is an online checklist used by the GBBC to collect bird observations globally every day of the year.

In the first GBBC, held in 1998, bird watchers and citizen scientists submitted about 13,500 checklists from the United States and Canada. This event has grown tremendously in the 20 years since then: last February, an estimated 214,018 bird watchers from more than 100 countries submitted 173,826 bird checklists reporting 5,940 species — more than half of the known species of birds in the world.

2017 GBBC Statistics, mapped.
(Credit: gbbc.birdcount.org.)

“Will we break last year’s record number of Canadian participants?” asked Jon McCracken, Bird Studies Canada’s National Program Director.

“A lot depends on the weather, but a little snow and cold shouldn’t get in your way. Remember that you don’t have to venture far afield at all. You truly can count birds right in your own backyard or, better yet, take a pleasant winter stroll around your neighborhood.”

Looking at the 2017 GBBC map, I see there is no yellow dot anywhere near where I now live, and only a few yellow dots in the entire country, so by participating this year, I can single-handedly break the participation record for my new home country. That’s inspiring.

In addition to being inspiring, the GBBC is a great way to participate in a truly global citizen science project alongside hundreds of thousands of other people of all nationalities and from all walks of life.

“The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to introduce people to participation in community science,” said Gary Langham, vice president and chief scientist for the National Audubon Society.

“No other program allows volunteers to take an instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations that can contribute to our understanding of how a changing climate is affecting birds.”

Without doubt, some birds are more sensitive than others to climate change.

“Some stories to watch are mountain birds moving into lowland valleys and east to the Great Plains, crossbills on the move across much of the continent, and many eastern birds responding to extremes as the winter temperatures have oscillated between unseasonably warm and exceptionally cold,” said Mr. Iliff.

Besides being 21 years old, this year’s GBBC is even more special because 2018 is the Year of the Bird, a 12-month celebration of birds that is also devoted to raising people’s awareness of the threats birds face around the world. The Year of the Bird is organized by many dozens of international organizations, including National Geographic, the National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and BirdLife International.

Already, I’m practicing counting the birds that arrive at my garden bird feeder — although I always have a few dozen birds at my bird feeders at at one time, there is a period of time in the late afternoon when a huge crowd of birds arrive all at once — I estimate that 100 or more birds arrive within a five minute period of time and spend the next 20–30 minutes pigging out. I suspect these are probably most or all of the wild birds from a kilometer or more away, looking to eat as much as possible so they survive yet another long, freezing cold Arctic night.

Originally published at Forbes on 11 February 2018.