The 2017 Great Backyard Bird Count is just around the corner! Sign-up now! If you’re new to the count, or have not participated since before the 2013 merger with eBird, you must create a free online account to enter your checklists.
If you already have an account, just use the same login name and password. If you have already participated in another Cornell Lab citizen-science project, you can use your existing login information, too.
Then, simply tally the numbers and kinds of birds you see for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count, Feb. 17-20, 2017.
You can count from any location, anywhere in the world, for as long as you wish! Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are constantly in flux.
No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time. Scientists use information from the Great Backyard Bird Count to get the “big picture” about what is happening to bird populations.
Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time.
Now, more than 160,000 people of all ages and walks of life worldwide join the four-day count each February to create an annual snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, with Bird Studies Canada and many international partners.