Press Releases

FOUR DAYS, FOUR MILLION BIRDS: EYES AND EARS OF BIRD ENTHUSIASTS CREATE "SNAPSHOT" OF THIS WINTER'S BIRDS

43,000 Checklists Received for 7th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count

March 18, 2004

Ithaca & New York, NY - What do you get when tens of thousands of bird enthusiasts focus their eyes and ears on North America's birds for a single winter weekend? In the case of the 7th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), February 13 -16, 2004, you get 43,000 checklists of 555 species of birds, totaling more than four million birds.

     Developed and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon, with sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited stores and the Natural Resources Conservation Service and help from Bird Studies Canada, the GBBC invites bird enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels to count the numbers and kinds of birds they see during the count period and report them over the Internet at www.birdsource.org/gbbc. This is the seventh year of the count, and researchers at Cornell and Audubon are excited about the results.

    "This year's GBBC reports add up to the most successful and amazing snapshot of winter bird populations yet," says John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "By taking just a little time to birdwatch during the GBBC, these citizens across North America have provided an unprecedented window into the distribution and abundance of North American birds."

    Audubon and Cornell go to great lengths to confirm observations. "More than 50 expert birders from across the continent were on hand to verify unusual reports and help with identification of puzzling species," says Frank Gill, Audubon's chief science officer. "These local experts helped ensure that the data collected during 2004 were extremely accurate, complementing the existing filtering system of state- and province-specific checklists." Gill adds that digital photos sent by participants played an important part this year, confirming interesting reports, such as a young male Rose-breasted Grosbeak in Derry, New Hampshire.

    Reports came in from all 50 states and all but one Canadian province, Nunavut. In the reaches of Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories, just 8 species were reported, but these included 20 Willow Ptarmigan, a specialized bird of the far north that appeared on only 7 checklists. Looking south, in the Hawaiian Islands, the largest tallies were, unfortunately, of introduced species such as Zebra Dove and Common Myna, although significant numbers of Pacific Golden-Plover, a shorebird species of conservation concern that appears on Audubon's WatchList, were also reported. It breeds in Alaska and winters on lawns in the Hawaiian islands.

    More general results include a "tenth-place finish" continentwide for the American Crow, which wouldn't raise eyebrows except that during the first five years of the GBBC, American Crow had always ranked fourth or fifth. Although the impacts of West Nile Virus on bird populations are not yet well understood, American Crows are known to be one of the species with the lowest survival after infection, leading to continued speculation that West Nile could be responsible for their decline in ranking.

    One of the major results documented across Canada and the northern half of the United States was a massive incursion of Common Redpolls. Irruptions of this and other winter finches from their northern, year-round range into southerly regions occur roughly every other year. Compared to the 2003 GBBC, a nonirruption year, the number of states and provinces reporting the species increased from 21 to 43, and the number of checklists on which the bird appears jumped from 186 to 2,639. Winter finch irruptions vary in magnitude and reach. This year's redpoll irruption resulted in higher densities of redpolls farther south and across the upper Midwest compared to the irruption of 2002, according to GBBC data. "We got a hint of the irruption to come based on reports from birders back in the fall," says Gill. "Until the data come in, though, you just don't know how big it's going to get. Looking at the irruption based on the GBBC maps is very exciting - there's basically a wall of redpolls reaching across much of the northern United States and southern Canada."

    The irruption of the Common Redpoll's rarer, icy-plumaged cousin, the Hoary Redpoll, is another exciting find. Reports from Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan (where the species is a more regular winterer) nearly doubled compared to the 2002 invasion (88 vs. 45). Ithaca alone had several confirmed Hoary Redpoll reports, one right at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In the southeastern United States, Gulf Coast birders were treated to increased numbers of two other finches, the Pine Siskin (115 reports compared to 10 in 2003) and Purple Finch (558 reports compared to 87 in 2003).

    Compared to 2003, much of the western U.S. saw a rise in Pine Siskin numbers, a signature irruptive species for the region, but came nowhere near the highs of GBBC 2002 when reports from California, Oregon, and Washington numbered more than 1,000 (compared to 343 in 2004). In the Southwest, Pinyon Jays put on a good showing with more than double the number of reports from 2003 across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. What were the factors influencing this? Perhaps with time, researchers will be able to find this out.

    Lab researchers were keeping an eye on Carolina Wrens this year. This species is well known for occasional diebacks and range retractions after cold, snowy winters. Across the northeastern United States, temperatures plummeted, snow piled high, and Carolina Wren numbers dropped dramatically, with 50 percent fewer reports this year vs. GBBC 2003. In some states, decreases were even more dramatic: in Ohio the number of checklists reporting the species dipped from 708 to 351, and in Massachusetts, from 252 to 98.

    "It is especially gratifying to see the building, year-to-year series of comparisons," says Fitzpatrick. "Look at Eurasian Collared-Dove, for instance. What a spectacular increase over just two years ago."

    Fitzpatrick and Gill encourage bird enthusiasts to keep up this momentum by participating in another comanaged project, eBird , at www.birdsource.org/ebird. Like the GBBC, eBird lets birders submit their sightings over the Internet to a vast database, but year-round instead of just one weekend. With eBird, participants can create their own menu of their favorite birding locales by plotting locations on a map. They can also choose from the list of birding hot spots already created for each state and province. Participants' reports are pooled for access: birders can look at their own reports for a given location or date; they can sort by species; they can even view sightings made by other birders while their own data are made accessible to others.

    "If you enjoyed the Great Backyard Bird Count, then eBird is for you. It uses the same amazing technology, and it gives new purpose to your bird sightings by making them available for a big-picture understanding of North American bird populations," says Fitzpatrick.

    As an example of how eBird and the GBBC complement each other, Gill points out that eBird observations documented a movement of Purple Finches through the northeastern United States in late October. "No one understood where they were going, though we knew they were on the move," he says. "Then the GBBC kicked in, and we found out that they had settled in big numbers along the Gulf Coast."

    Birders are invited to try eBird right away, and to view results of the Great Backyard Bird Count. Top-ten lists of all sorts are available at the web site, as are maps of every species reported.

    Next year's Great Backyard Bird Count will take place February 18-21, 2005. For more information on how you can help promote the Great Backyard Bird Count and eBird, write the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 or the National Audubon Science Office, 545 Almshouse Road, Ivyland, PA 18974.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a membership institution interpreting and conserving the earth's biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds.

Audubon is dedicated to protecting birds and other wildlife and the habitat that supports them. Our national network of community-based Audubon nature centers and chapters, environmental education programs, and advocacy on behalf of areas sustaining important bird populations engage millions of people of all ages and backgrounds in positive conservation experiences.