Every year in February, the annual Great Backyard Bird Count is hosted worldwide. This event invites people to help scientists by counting the birds they see and reporting their observations. This occurs across four days, allowing everyday people to discuss their love for birds.

Anyone can participate in this event by watching birds from anywhere they would like. For only 15 minutes (or more) of your day, you can watch birds in your backyard, at parks, in your neighborhood and many more places.

“This count is so fun because anyone can take part, whether you are an expert, novice or feeder watcher,” Chad Wilsey, the vice president and chief scientist of the National Audubon Society, said. “I enjoy discovering the birds that occur in my own backyard and on my block and then comparing with others.”

If you are just a beginner, it is recommended that you use the Merlin Bird ID app, helping with the identification of the bird you are either seeing or listening to. However, if this is not your first time, utilize the eBird app or website and record the number of birds you discovered as usual.

This event helps scientists utilize our observations to track bird populations, changes in the environment and patterns in bird migration. Since scientists are unable to be everywhere all at once, they need our help!

All of this began in 1998 with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, setting the first online participatory science project in motion. Birds Canada joined in 2009 to expand this mission into another country, Canada. In 2013, the project finally became a global event, giving people across the world a chance to participate by entering their data into eBird, the largest online database for citizen-science projects.

On Friday, Feb. 13, all students were invited to the auditorium during lunch to witness a live animal program featuring our guest speaker from the Avian Wildlife Center, to help learn more about birds.

For more information, visit https://www.birdcount.org/.