by Dan Casey

The 27th annual “Great Backyard Bird Count” (GBBC) will be held February 16-19, 2024. This effort, sponsored by the Cornell Laboratory, National Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada, encourages all interested people to spend at least one, 15-minute period over those four days to enter a list of birds seen in their yard or a favorite local patch. Much like the “Global Big Days” in May and October, this event is designed to engage people in birding, while providing insight into the seasonal distribution of birds.

Observations submitted help us to better understand global bird populations at a time that precedes the onset of spring migration. These data are entered into the massive eBird database, which has become the largest citizen science database ever developed to describe the distribution and abundance of birds across the globe. And if you are already an eBird contributor, any checklists you submit during that four-day period will be included. 

It’s easy! Just pick a place, count all the birds you see or hear, and enter them into eBird! Detailed instructions on how to participate are on the GBBC website, https://www.birdcount.org/.