How to select your Count Days

FeederWatch Count Days are two consecutive days when you count the birds at your feeders for Project FeederWatch. Count Days always come in pairs. Pick days that will maximize the time you have to count birds. Schedule your Count Days in advance, if possible. Do not change your Count Days just because you see remarkable numbers or kinds of birds. Doing so would bias your data. If you are unable to count during a particular Count Period, that's okay. Your data are valuable even if you were only able to count on a few occasions.

The number of counts you may schedule depends on which way you will be submitting your data.

If you submit your data through our web site, you may count birds for two consecutive days each week, if you choose. The FeederWatch season always begins the second Saturday in November and runs for 21 weeks, ending on a Friday, which means online participants may submit up to 21 bird counts. Just make sure that you schedule each pair of Count Days at least 5 days apart (leave five days when you don't count birds between each count). You may decide to count every Tuesday and Wednesday, for example.

If you submit your data on paper forms, the season is divided into ten Count Periods (scanning data takes several months, which limits the amount of paper data forms we are able to process each year). Please refer to the Count Periods table to see when to schedule your counts. Counts must be at least 7 days apart (leave seven days when you don't count birds between each count) and conducted for two days in a row (you may decide to count every other weekend, for example). You may submit up to 10 bird counts, one count per Count Period.

• Select your FeederWatch Count Days in advance and try your best to stick with them. Do not change your Count Days just because you see remarkable numbers or kinds of birds. Doing so would bias your data. 

• Watch your feeders for as long as you can during your Count Days. However, you don’t need to get up early or watch continuously--many people observe before and after work, or they count for five minutes at the top of every hour. If you cannot count during both of your Count Days, try to count as long as possible on your one available day. Be sure to keep track of how much time you spend observing your Count Site. Remember if no birds visit your feeders, this information is important. Please report "I watched my feeders, but no birds were present" on your data forms.