Join the 20th Great Backyard Bird Count
Bird watchers around the world take part, February 17-20
For release: February 2, 2017
New York, NY, Ithaca, NY, and Port Rowan, ON—A lot has changed since the first
Great Backyard Bird Count <http://www.birdcount.org/>(GBBC) was held in 1998.
Each year brings unwavering enthusiasm from the growing number of participants
in this now-global event. The 20th annual GBBC is taking place February 17-20
in backyards, parks, nature centers, on hiking trails, school grounds,
balconies, and beaches—anywhere you find birds.
Bird watchers count the birds they see for at least 15 minutes on one or more
days of the count, then enter their checklists at birdcount.org
<http://www.birdcount.org/>. All the data contribute to a snapshot of bird
distribution and help scientists see changes over the past 20 years.
“The very first GBBC was an experiment,” says the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s
Marshall Iliff, a leader of the eBird program
<http://ebird.org/?__hstc=64079792.2485041f189c1cd1e04eb1789486bdeb.1483138633099.1485995799578.1486828486106.3&__hssc=64079792.2.1486943746497&__hsfp=1281601211>.
“We wanted to see if people would use the Internet to send us their bird
sightings. Clearly the experiment was a success!” eBird collects bird
observations globally every day of the year and is the online platform used by
the GBBC.
That first year, bird watchers submitted about 13,500 checklists from the
United States and Canada. Fast-forward to the most recent event in 2016. Over
the four days of the count, an estimated 163,763 bird watchers from more than
100 countries submitted 162,052 bird checklists reporting 5,689 species–more
than half the known bird species in the world.
“The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to introduce people to
participation in citizen science,” says Audubon vice president and chief
scientist Gary Langham. “No other program allows volunteers to take an
instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations that can contribute to our
understanding of how a changing climate is affecting birds.”
Varying weather conditions so far this winter are producing a few trends that
GBBC participants can watch for during the count. eBird reports show many more
waterfowl and kingfishers remaining further north than usual because they are
finding open water. If that changes, these birds could move southward.
Also noted are higher than usual numbers of Bohemian Waxwings in the Pacific
Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains. And while some winter finches have been
spotted in the East, such as Red Crossbills, Common Redpolls, Evening
Grosbeaks, and a few Pine Grosbeaks, there seem to be no big irruptions so far.
A few eye-catching Snowy Owls have been reported in the northern half of the
United States.
Jon McCracken, Bird Studies Canada’s National Program Director, reminds
participants in Canada and the U.S. to keep watch for snowies. He says, “The
GBBC has done a terrific job of tracking irruptions of Snowy Owls southward
over the past several years. We can’t predict what winter 2017 will bring,
because Snowy Owl populations are so closely tied to unpredictable ‘cycles’ of
lemmings in the Arctic. These cycles occur at intervals between two and six
years. Nevertheless, there are already reports of Snowy Owls as far south as
Virginia.”
In addition to counting birds, the GBBC photo contest has also been a hit with
participants since it was introduced in 2006. Since then, tens of thousands of
stunning images have been submitted. For the 20th anniversary of the GBBC, the
public is invited to vote for their favorite top photo from each of the past 11
years in a special album they will find on the GBBC website home page. Voting
takes place during the four days of the GBBC.
Learn more about how to take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count at
birdcount.org <http://www.birdcount.org/> where downloadable instructions and
an explanatory PowerPoint are available. The GBBC is a joint project of the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
<http://www.birds.cornell.edu/?__hstc=64079792.2485041f189c1cd1e04eb1789486bdeb.1483138633099.1485995799578.1486828486106.3&__hssc=64079792.2.1486943746497&__hsfp=1281601211>
and the National Audubon Society <http://www.audubon.org/> with partner Bird
Studies Canada <http://www.birdscanada.org/> and is made possible in part by
sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited <http://www.wbu.com/>.
