STARKVILLE — The Starkville Town and Country Garden Club encourages adults, teens, and children to participate with them in the 28th annual Great Backyard Bird Count on February 14-17.
Each year the world comes together over four days to watch and count the birds in their area and then report their count to eBird, one of the world’s largest nature databases with more than one hundred million bird sightings. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an inter-organizational effort between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada.
“Our garden club participates in the Great Backyard Bird Count each year,” said Marie Cayson, co-chair of the Starkville Town and Country Club Birds, Bees, Butterflies, and Backyard Habitat Committee. “For the second year in a row, committee members helped our junior garden club, Garden of Goodness and Glory, identify and count birds in their garden located near the entrance of Brooksville Gardens in Starkville. We talked about why birds are important to us and why it is important to help scientists gather data to figure out why bird populations are declining. They loved being citizen scientists for the day! They also enjoyed making bird feeders out of cardboard tubes, peanut butter, bird seed and string.”
The bird count with the junior garden club members was conducted on Feb. 9 prior to the official date so more garden club members could participate. Garden club and junior garden club members identified and counted within a 15-minute period the following birds: 18 House Sparrows, three Juncos, one Tufted Titmouse, two Cardinals, one Hairy Woodpecker and two Crows.
“Last year, the junior gardeners really enjoyed looking through binoculars, some for the first time ever, and noticing all the birds around them,” said Cindy Melby, co-chair of the Education and Young Gardeners Committee. “Participation in the bird count was an eye-opening experience for them. We decided to put two bird feeders in the garden so they could feed them. Now, feeding the birds is one of the first things they want to do when they get to the garden, and it is often a race to see who gets to put the bird seed out for our feathered friends.”
The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great activity for individuals, families, school children, and groups, and the technology makes it easy to report your bird sightings via your mobile phone or a downloadable app. The Great Backyard Bird Count has made it so easy to participate, even if you have never done any birdwatching before. There is a step-by-step guide for how to participate on the website, birdcount.org, which explains ways to enter your bird count data. Individuals can even watch the data roll in from around the world via the interactive map.
The month of February was chosen to conduct the four-day bird count because it is just before spring migrations ramp up in March. Participants just need to watch and count the birds they see and hear for at least 15 minutes during the four-day period and then submit their list online.
Why should individuals participate in the bird count? Because bird populations are constantly changing, scientists need help to track and trend the movements of bird species around the world; therefore, the data gathered by citizens is extremely important. The data allows scientists to know if bird populations are growing or shrinking and what kind of birds inhabit different areas.
The birdcount.org website offers detailed information about how to participate, which software to utilize, interesting videos explaining the bird count and answers to frequently asked questions.
The Great Backyard Bird Count has outlined the following steps on their website, www.birdcount.org, on how to participate. The steps outlined include: Deciding where you will watch birds, watching birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days of Feb. 14-17, and identifying all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location.
If you are a beginning bird admirer and new to bird identification, try using the Merlin Bird ID app to tell what birds you are seeing or hearing. The app covers bird species from seven continents and is available in eighteen languages.
If you have participated in the count before and want to record numbers of birds, try the eBird Mobile app or enter your bird list on the eBird website.
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