Get into America?s Great Backyard

Join the Great Backyard Bird Count February 18?21

By Paul Green

Whether or not bird watching in the chill of mid-February is part of your regular repertoire, we hope you?ll join us for the Great Backyard Bird Count on February 18–21, 2005. This year, we hope that in addition to counting birds in your own backyard, you?ll venture into North America?s bigger backyard—our national and state parks, wildlife refuges, and other public lands. We?re taking the GREAT in the Great Backyard Bird Count very seriously!

To participate, simply count the birds you see during all or part of the four-day event and report your highest counts for each species over the Internet at www.birdsource.org/gbbc. Your sightings will be pooled with those of thousands of other birders so what you see can be fitted into a bigger picture of bird movements across the continent. The reports are tracked in real time so you can view maps showing where the birds are being seen and how many of them there are. With thousands of people sending in their information at the same time, birders across North America become linked to one another—you?ll be able to feel the excitement of being part of this huge network of birders, all wired up together at the same time.

We?ve chosen this year?s theme—North America?s Great Backyard—as a way to encourage people to get out and count birds at a time of year when few people visit our public lands. The GBBC is about gathering information about the movements and numbers of our common birds as well as of birds of special concern. Since fewer people normally visit national parks, national forests, or wildlife refuges in the winter, you could turn up some very useful information.

Pine Siskin. Photo by David Cothran

What are birders able to show through the GBBC? The best way to see is to go to the results pages at www.birdsource.org/gbbc and look at time-series maps for species such as Eurasian Collared-Dove, Common Redpoll, Pine Siskin, and Purple Finch. For example, a casual review of the results shows us that Eurasian Collared-Doves have continued to march northward and westward; participants reported this introduced species from more states (22) and in greater numbers (nearly 3,300) than last year. Likewise, the periodic southward irruptions of Common and Hoary redpolls were apparent in the 2004 GBBC. In the southeastern United States, Gulf Coast birders were able to see increased numbers of two other finches, the Pine Siskin and Purple Finch. Results such as these form the raw material for researchers? analyses.

With each passing year, the GBBC brings new information and adds value to what is already contained in our database, allowing us to build critical information on long-term trends in bird populations. The project, now in its eighth year, is developed and managed by the Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society and is sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited.

Purple Finch, Houston Co., Texas. Photo by Betty Baker

The GBBC web site provides information for participants, including images, vocalizations, range maps, and tips to help you distinguish between similar-looking species. In addition, participants learn a great deal about birds and have the option of discussing what they have seen with more than 100 experts around the continent. We encourage participants to send in digital photographs of unusual sightings. We will share some of these photographs on the web site during the event, such as the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak that spent the winter in Derry, New Hampshire, in 2004. Simply email your photograph to citizenscience@audubon.org.

We hope that you will encourage others to take part too. The GBBC is a great event for scout troops, classrooms, businesses, nature clubs, and any other group interested in learning about birds together. So put the date in your calendar for February 18?21, look at the web site today at www.birdsource.org/gbbc, and call your friends to make a birding date. We look forward to learning from what you see.

Paul Green is Audubon?s director of citizen science.

If you would like to participate in the GBBC but don?t have access to the Internet, try visiting your local library for Internet access or submitting your reports through participating Wild Birds Unlimited Stores. If necessary, you can receive instructions by calling the Lab at (800) 843-2473 and submit reports through postal mail sent to Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Attn: GBBC, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850.

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu