You don’t need to have a backyard.
A northern cardinal, hiding from a hawk on an Etobicoke street.
Just a super quick posting here to encourage everyone and anyone to join in on this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) this coming weekend — February 17th to 20th, 2023.
The GBBC is organized jointly by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York), the US National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada. This is literally just watching for birds in a chosen location, identifying them (plenty of online tools available for that part), and then reporting them to Cornell through their eBird platform (available either as an app or website). This annual event provides the scientists at Cornell with crucial data about bird populations and movement all over the world. And when Cornell gets this data, they turn it into analytical species maps and expert reports that keep us all informed about what’s happening with birds.
A black-capped chickadee in my northern backyard.
All the details you need to participate in the GBBC this year are here at the GBBC site, but these are the basic three steps:
Step 1: Decide where you will watch birds.
That could be through a window or outside, in your own back yard, in a local park, on the street… whatever works for you.
Step 2: Watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days, February 17-20, 2023.
Fifteen minutes is all you need, but obviously more is welcome.
Step 3: Identify all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location and use the best tool for sharing your bird sightings.
Cornell’s Merlin app will get you there for both sight and sound IDs.
This super bird-nerdy podcast from Birds Canada is helpful for understanding the event, and its impact.
I will be counting birds this weekend. Hope you can too.
A white-breasted nuthatch in my urban backyard — the park down the road.