The Great Backyard Bird Count Weekend

Every February, count for as little as 15 minutes in your own backyard to help expand our understanding of birds. The 21st annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) will be held Friday, February 16, through Monday, February 19, 2018.

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a fun way for locals to unite with bird watchers of all ages, all over the world, in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations.

According to the National Audubon Society, Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from beginning bird watchers to experts, and you can participate from your backyard, or anywhere in the world.

Each checklist submitted during the GBBC helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn more about how birds are doing, and how to protect them and the environment we share. Last year, more than 160,000 participants submitted their bird observations online, creating the largest instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations ever recorded.

Please visit the official website at birdcount.org for more information. 

*Image art by Charlie Harper. Image courtesy GBBC.