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| Eastern Bluebird (S.McCleary) |
Birds are everywhere, all the time, doing fascinating things. Join the Audubon and Cornell Lab Great Backyard Bird Count this year. Spend as little as 15 minutes in your favorite places, including at your backyard feeders, watching birds. Then identify them, count them, and submit the data to help scientists better understand and protect birds around the world.
Why count birds? The Cornell Lab notes that “Bird populations are constantly changing. No one scientist, or team of scientists, can keep track of the complicated movement of species around the world.” Individuals, and teams of ordinary citizens, can become community scientists and record the species of birds and their numbers in their own backyard and community.
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| Female Northern Cardinal |
Online links from Audubon and Cornell Lab and Cornell’s EBird & Merlin
How to Participate in the GBBC https://www.birdcount.org/participate/
Participating is easy, fun to do alone or
with others, and can be done anywhere you find
birds.
Step 1: Decide where you will watch birds.
Step 2: Watch birds for 15 minutes or more,
at least once over the four days, February 16–19, 2024.
Step 3: Identify all the birds you see or
hear within your planned time/location.
Full instructions and tips on counting the
birds is at https://www.birdcount.org/
Submitting Photos Submit pictures from your birding weekend. Bird photos and
people photos will be uploaded separately. https://www.birdcount.org/learn/photos/
Counting
Instructions https://www.birdcount.org/tools/counting-instructions/
How
to count birds, set up an account (quite easy), and enter data. If you have
never participated in the GBBC before, you’ll need to set up an account at BirdCount.org or ebird.org,
providing your name and email and choosing a personal username and password (no
personal data required).
How
to Count
These
articles give you clear information about counting and are helpful if you are
new at this. Ex, "If you see a male Northern Cardinal in the first five
minutes of your walk, and then see a male Northern Cardinal in roughly the same
place on your way back you would count one."
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| Downy Woodpecker (Male) on suet (C.Kagan) |
Bird Counting 101 https://ebird.org/news/counting-101/
Bird Counting 102- At the Feeders https://ebird.org/news/counting-102/
Cornell Lab – Free Merlin Bird ID
downloadable Apps for phones https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
This
phone app can help ID birds by photo or by sound.
From
free curricula to all-inclusive kits, the Cornell Lab has a wide
variety of lessons and activities to captivate learners of all grade levels.
Each level has Kits & Curriculum Units and free downloadable games, lessons
& activities geared to the grade level. Younger grades also have book
guides.
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| Courtesy of Cornell Lab |
Cornell eBird Offers a free 3-hour self-paced course, eBird Essentials (requires a Cornell Lab account) https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/product/ebird-essentials/
Books:
The Franklin County Library System has bird identification books as well as
many story books for K-12 available for check out. https://discovery.fclspa.org/
HERB SAMPLER Second Edition
Buy one for yourself and consider getting a few more. They make great hostess gifts, housewarming, and anytime gifts.
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