Tag: eBird

23rd Annual Great Backyard Bird Count

It’s that time of year again! The 23rd Annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is this weekend, Friday, February 14, through Monday, February 19, 2020.

During this weekend, volunteers from around the world count the birds they see for at least 15 minutes, on one or more days of the count and then enter their checklists at birdcount.org. It can be as simple as looking out your window, or going out to your favorite birding spot and report on what you see.

White-breasted nuthatch at my new Squirrel Buster Peanut + feeder from Brome. Filled with shelled peanuts it’s a great feeder for attracting nuthatches and woodpeckers.

Why does this matter?

There was a recent study in the journal Science last fall that described the decline in the overall number of North American birds by 29% since 1970. Birds also face a number of issues that certainly could affect their future numbers. Citizen science projects like the GBBC give scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society valuable information on where the birds are, how their numbers might be changing overall or regionally, and how they may be adjusting to new habitats. You can learn more about the GBBC at https://gbbc.birdcount.org.

Wondering what the #1 reported bird is in the U.S.?

Most years it’s been the Northern Cardinal, a favorite at my feeders. I have this Squirrel Buster Standard Squirrel-proof Bird Feeder from Brome with perches perfect for cardinals right outside the kitchen window. I fill it with striped sunflower seeds which have a thicker shell than black-oiled sunflower seeds. House sparrows and house finches can’t really eat them, but are just fine for the cardinals. Makes dishwashing much more entertaining watching these beautiful birds.

What did I report this morning in my 15 min of watching my feeders in the backyard?

  • 1 Northern Cardinal (female)
  • 1 White-breasted nuthatch
  • 3 Black-capped chickadees
  • 2 Juncoes
  • 6 House sparrows
  • 4 House finches
  • 1 Downy woodpecker
  • 1 squirrel – no, I didn’t really report it, but it was there eating the crumbs off the ground so I’ll count it.

Too bad there wasn’t anything unusual today, but happy to have anything in addition to the ever present and obnoxious house sparrows and house finches.

Need help identifying what you see? Check out these mobile apps, these online resources, or order my favorite bird book for beginner to intermediate birders, Birds of North America: A Guide to Field Identification.

Interested in what everyone else is seeing? On the GBBC website you can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting.  Be sure to check out the Explore a Region tool to see what everyone else is seeing in your area. Want to have your own checklist specific to your area? Check this tool out.

I did my part!

You can get your own certificate, just follow this link.

Want to help count birds all year round? You can keep counting throughout the year with eBird, which uses the same system as the Great Backyard Bird Count to collect, store, and display data any time, all the time. I love this tool to see what birds others are seeing (and where) when I’m out and about.

Happy Birding! Hope you see something interesting, but even if you don’t, know you’ve made a difference for science. Let me know what you saw this weekend!

BTW, these Brome feeders really do keep out the squirrels! This guy tried a few times and has since given up.

Bird Count Time

It’s that time of year again! The 22nd Annual Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend, Friday, February 15, through Monday, February 18, 2019.

This is a wonderful citizen science project that 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.

peanut feeder

It can be as simple as looking out your window for as little as 15 min, or go out to your favorite birding spot and report on what you see. Every report is important to create a worldwide snapshot of where all the birds are at one moment. Scientists use this information to investigate how weather and climate change influence bird populations, why some birds like winter finches appear in large numbers during some years but not others, how the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years, how are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions and have there been changes in bird diversity in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?

Once you’ve counted your birds, you can log your sightings online at birdcount.org. This morning I counted 2 red-breasted nuthatches, 1 downy woodpecker, 4 house finches, 6 house sparrows and 1 female cardinal. I’ll report again tomorrow morning and hopefully one of my unusual visitors like the Red-bellied Woodpecker or Coopers Hawk decides to visit.

Need help identifying what you see? Check out these mobile apps, these online resources, or order my favorite bird book for beginner to intermediate birders, Birds of North America: A Guide to Field Identification.

This is a male cardinal from a few days ago. He was just frozen there at the feeder with the striped sunflowers in his beak. Not sure what he was doing, but he sat like this probably for a minute or so.

In the past, I generally didn’t have red-breasted nuthatches this time of year. They’d come through on migration for a couple of weeks and then move on elsewhere. This is exactly the type of data they are looking for.

squirrel proof peanut bird feeder

Interested in what everyone else is seeing? On the GBBC website you can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting.  Be sure to check out the Explore a Region tool to see what everyone else is seeing in your area. Want to have your own checklist specific to your area? Check this tool out.

Want to help count birds all year round? You can keep counting throughout the year with eBird, which uses the same system as the Great Backyard Bird Count to collect, store, and display data any time, all the time. I love this tool to see what birds others are seeing (and where) when I’m out and about.

I did my part 😊

You can get your own certificate, just follow this link.

Happy Birding! Hope you see something interesting, but even if you don’t, know you’ve made a difference for science.

Where Are the Hummingbirds?

I started wondering this earlier this summer around the same time a friend asked me how long it takes to get Ruby-throated hummingbirds to come to a new feeder.

While it does usually take a while to get them to find a new feeder, her question made me realize that it seemed like I was having far fewer hummingbirds to my own feeder this year.

Normally here in Chicago, I have a pretty steady stream of hummingbirds to my garden and feeders by mid-spring, but this year it has been a trickle. I started asking around and some of my friends in the area reported the same thing.

I asked my mom in Michigan, the same thing. Almost none in her yard this year. Although it was interesting that a friend of hers nearby seemed to be having normal numbers to his yard.

I tried looking online to see if others were noticing the same thing and did find a few anecdotal comments that hummingbirds seemed to be missing in the Midwest this year.

Out of curiosity, I called my local Wild Birds Unlimited store to see if they’d heard anything. They are not only a great source for birding accessories, but also for information on all things bird related. They had also heard reports that there seemed to be fewer hummingbirds locally, and that it was possibly due to a shift in migration more to the East Coast this year or maybe they’re just arriving later than normal because of our spring weather.

Of course, that meant I had to ask around some more and got reports back that on the East Coast their numbers seemed down as well.

Interestingly, I seem to have had normal activity at my WI cabin feeder and just recently I’ve been seeing an increase in activity at my feeder at home.

I did a little more research on eBird using their mountains of citizen science bird checklist data. Looking at the frequency of checklists containing Ruby-throated hummingbird sightings in my county in IL, the actual numbers seem to be pretty low early on but have rebounded a bit above normal in late June and July (2017 is purple). So it looks like instead of not being here, they have just come later than normal.  You can check out your local area by starting on this eBird page.

Hummingbirds sightings should increase even more the rest of the summer as each of the 2 or 3 broods hatch and the yearlings start looking for food in our yards alongside the adults.

So how has it been in your neck of the woods this year? Have the Ruby-throated hummingbirds been seen in your yard like normal? If you checked out eBird, be sure to add to their data by reporting your bird sightings.  Every little bit helps!

BTW, if you don’t have a lot of hummingbirds draining the feeder regularly, be sure to change the food frequently so when they do arrive they have fresh food. You can get an easy nectar recipe here.

 

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