Another year, another Great
Backyard Bird Count. This year it will be February 15-18, 2013. Get the whole
family together and see how many birds you can count.
THE GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT
The Annual Great Backyard Bird
Count is an annual four-day event that
engages bird watchers of all ages in
counting birds to create a real-time
snapshot of where the birds are across the
continent. It is a cooperative effort of the
National Audubon Society
http://www.audubon.org/ and the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/page.aspx?pid=1658.
Anyone can participate, from beginning bird
watchers to experts. It takes as little as
15 minutes on one day, or you can count for
as long as you like each day of the event.
It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the
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 the
complex distribution and movements of so
many species in such a short time.
We need your help. Make sure the birds from
your community are well represented in the
count. It doesn't matter whether you report
the 5 species coming to your backyard feeder
or the 75 species you see during a day's
outing to a wildlife refuge.
Your counts can help to answer many questions:
How will this winter's snow and
cold temperatures influence bird
populations?
Where are winter finches and
other “irruptive” species that appear in
large numbers during some years but not
others?
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?
Are any birds undergoing worrisome
declines that point to the need for
conservation attention?
Scientists use the counts, along with
observations from other citizen-science
projects, such as the
Christmas Bird Count,
Project FeederWatch, and
eBird, to give us an immense picture of
our winter birds. Each year that these data
are collected makes them more meaningful and
allows scientists to investigate
far-reaching questions.
