The Great Backyard Bird Count begins today. Participating in the annual bird counting effort are about 385,000 individuals from 192 countries. 25 years have passed since the inaugural event. Among the participants are Steve and Janet Kistler from the American state of Kentucky. Since the beginnings of the now-international custom in 1998, they have carried out this annual ritual. This is Moira Dalibor’s first event; she is a schoolteacher from neighboring Lexington. In order to gather information, she is taking a group of parents and students to a garden.
The experiment is led by Becca Rodomsky-Bish at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. In collaboration with the National Audubon Society and Birds Canada, the lab hosts the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). According to Rodomsky-Bish, “every year we see increased participation,” and 2022 was a significant increase. Tens of thousands of people submitted bird checklists in India, which had the highest participation rate outside of the United States last year. That represented a 28 percent rise over 2021.
The global data is added to the eBird database, which scientists use to study bird populations. The GBBC is one of several “citizen science” initiatives that are becoming more popular, where volunteers gather information about the natural environment for academics. According to Rodomsky-Bish, eBird is used year-round by many birdwatchers and has amassed enormous volumes of data over the past few years, often capturing between one and two million bird checklists per month from all over the world. The data aids in tracking the population sizes of various bird species, which benefits conservation efforts.
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