Be a part of this global count of birds. Each February, for four days, the world comes together for the love of birds. Over these four days people spend time in their favorite places watching and counting as many birds as they can find and reporting them on http://ebird.org  These observations help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations.

Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) was the first online citizen-science project (also referred to as community science) to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real time. Birds Canada joined the project in 2009 to provide an expanded capacity to support participation in Canada. In 2013, the GBBC became a global project when people began entering data into eBird, the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science (community science) project.

Participating in the count is easy.  During the four day count period, watch birds for as little as 15 minutes wherever you are and record your data on eBird.  If you are new to eBird and the count, visit http://birdcount.org for detailed information.