The Intro
The Simplicity
Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to see what birds are in your backyard. Load the feeders on Friday morning, February 12th, curl up with a good field guide some Binoculars and your notebook and see how many types and total birds have come to your feeder in say 15 minutes or so. Yup it’s that simple. Don’t worry too much about missing a chickadee that flew in and out without you counting it, it is the entire count that matters. Don’t forget to count them all, including crows and pigeons, and it counts if you see them fly by outside of your yard too. If you like things really simple, print this handy form to use during your count. You can make as many lists as you like in the four days between Feb 12 and Feb 15. Don’t worry if your birds are sparse as that information is just as important as having a flocks come in and pillage your feeder. If you would like to walk in your local park, keep a count there as well, but enter it as a different location from your yard. For the hard-core birders like me, I will hit every "hotspot" in my area during that weekend including wildlife reserves, national parks, and all around “birdy” areas and end up with around 20 lists for the weekend. If one list over the four days is your speed, that is absolutely perfect too.
|
|
The Entry
The Contest
Oh yes, there is a contest, but it is much easier to win if you have a digital camera. Make sure that you have your camera handy during your count as you might just take the winning shot. I know I’m bringing my camera with me. Click here to see the winners from 2015.
|
The Good Fight
The Feedback
One of the cool things about the people at the GBBC and eBird are that they don’t just want to take your information and run. They have put together some very fascinating graphics that show how your information is used in several different applications. Let’s say your favorite bird is the Downy Woodpecker and you are curious about where you could find your favorite bird in other parts of the county, you would look here and type in Downy Woodpecker. There is also a very mesmerizing map of the world that shows where each of the checklists are being entered from in real time. I have been mesmerized by this very clever program on many occasions. During the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count, the map should be lit up like a Christmas tree.
|
2016 GBBC Statistics
162,052 5,689 18,637,974
Statistics last updated on March 2, 2016