Pick an area. Watch, Count, and Record

To participate, you will need to watch, count, and record all birds in a simple standardized way. Each time you count, you should spend 20 minutes in an area of approximately 0.5 acres or less recording the maximum number for each species seen at any one time. It’s important to follow these guidelines so that all participants collect data in the same way.

Select your count site. 

 
A count site is a yard, or portion of a yard, where you plan to count birds. You will do all your counts at this site. A count site should be roughly a half-acre, or less if necessary, surrounding or directly adjacent to a residence or building. A half-acre is slightly less than half a football field, or about 100' x 200'.

Create a schedule of clustered, repeated counts.

Schedule the date and time of count sessions.  For at least one week in spring and one week in summer, conduct counts on 3 consecutive days. These clustered counts should occur at similar times on consecutive days and under similar weather conditions (e.g., similar temperature, wind, precipitation).  If the weather changes during the planned 3-day series of counts, wait and resume the count series when conditions are again similar to the initial count. We encourage participants to repeat the protocol several times in spring and summer. For example, participants are encouraged to conduct 3 days of counts in the mornings, and later 3 days of counts in the afternoons.

Don’t change your count schedule just because you see certain kinds of birds in the yard. Doing so would bias your data. You can still record these sightings online, but if you do, please do not record them as part of My Yard Counts. If it rains during a scheduled count session, simply reschedule.   We established a flexible protocol to accommodate a variety of participants.

 
Watch, count and record.

Each count should last 20 minutes and take place under good weather conditions (e.g., when it is not raining). Record all the birds in your count site, but do not record birds flying over unless they land in your site. Take notes on bird species that you cannot identify. RECORD THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS THAT YOU SEE DURING ANY ONE COUNT SESSION. This will ensure that you don’t count the same bird more than once. Do not record birds seen by other people.

Next - Go to B. Register your yard (count site) and enter your bird counts online.