The Great Backyard Bird Count has arrived! Here's how to get involved

Kim MacDonald
·4 min read

From February 17 to 20th, people from around the world will be stepping outside or just looking out their windows to count the bird species in their yards.

And there's more to this event than plain old fun. It provides many benefits to bird experts, explains Kerrie Wilcox of Birds Canada.

“We're getting this great data on our resident winter birds, and we can see long-term trends. And it's just a fantastic way to get everybody outside and involved.”

One of the long-term trends they’ve noticed is the reappearance of birds of prey. Hawks have increased 110 per cent since the 1970s, which scientists attribute to the banning of DDTs - a substance that Canada started phasing out in the 1970s.

"Conservation works," Wilcox says, "and citizen scientists are telling us this with the data that they're sharing."

Winter robins

Wilcox notes that robins are more likely to stick around for the winter now, because our winters aren’t as cold as they once were, and because people are making their backyards more bird-friendly with the trees and shrubs they’re choosing.

"Over the past few decades, more and more robins are adopting a non-migratory strategy, and they're migrating less than 100 kilometres."

Wilcox told The Weather Network in a separate interview in February 2022.

Between November and April 2021, members documented robins at 59 per cent of Ontario sites.

"That's way up from 27 per cent in our first season in 1989. Winter robins are also on an upward trend in all regions of Canada."

Bird apps

If you're new to bird watching and aren’t sure what you’re looking at, Wilcox encourages you to get the Merlin Bird I.D. app which will help identify the species by asking a series of questions. Once identified you can add it to the official bird count.

The [Bird Count website(https://www.birdcount.org/) has a live map that lights up in different countries as people check in birds.

If you want to get involved in this weekend’s Great Backyard Bird Count along with thousands of other Canadians, go to birdcount.org for everything you’ll need to get started.

Thumbnail image by Cheryl Santa Maria, made with graphical elements from Canva Pro. This report was published with files from Cheryl Santa Maria.