The Great Backyard Bird Count from Feb. 14 to 17 will attract birders from Cortland to the Republic of the Congo — anywhere you can find birds in a program the Cornell Lab of Ornithology created.
The lab and the National Audubon Society will help you spend time in your favorite places watching birds. Count and identify birds around you in as little as 15 minutes, then tell the researchers what you see.
Your counts will help scientists better understand and protect birds around the world. If you already use eBird or Merlin, your submissions over the 4 days count toward GBBC.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society began the bird count in 1998, the first online participatory-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near-real time. Birds Canada joined the project in 2009, and in 2013, the program expanded globally with data entry into eBird, the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project.
You can take part alone, or with others, anywhere you find birds:
•Decide where you will watch birds.
•Watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days, Feb. 14 to 17.
•Identify all the birds you see or hear within your planned time and location. If you’re new to bird identification, try using the Merlin Bird ID app, available at merlin.allaboutbirds.org/. If you’ve taken part before, try the eBird Mobile app available at https://ebird.org/about/ebird-mobile/.
For details, go to www.birdcount.org/participate/.
