Many people’s favorite community science projects are about birds. First, birds are fairly easy to observe in our own yards, and second, we want to do all we can to conserve them!
Merlin Bird ID – Easy!
SPONSOR: Cornell Lab of Ornithology
An amazingly accurate bird ID app — and FREE! You can identify birds by text description, by photo, or even by song.
NOTE: This app was made possible by the hours of contributions made by volunteers who patiently adjusted boundary boxes on bird photos, added dots to indicate the beak etc. on thousands of photos to train the AI used to create Merlin and other free apps.
Learn how to use it.
“Merlin has permanently changed how I hear the world. I can now tune in to birdsong operas that had never entered my consciousness.” ~ Michael Coren, Washington Post
Journey North Hummingbird Migration – Very easy!
SPONSORS: Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum; Annenburg Learner
Here are the hummingbird events you can report, such as first sighted, nectaring from flowers etc. (Here in CNY, we’re most likely to see Ruby-throated hummingbirds.)
NOTE: You can also report other bird species such as Red-winged blackbirds, orioles, and also some butterflies or plants.
BONUS: In addition to participating in submitting sightings etc. there is a wealth of info on each creature under the Resources tab for each. Fascinating information for anyone and a wonderful resource for teachers. Here are the resources for hummingbirds.
eBird – Easy after your learn the rules for counting!
SPONSOR: Cornell Lab of Ornithology
“eBird transforms the global birding community’s passion for birds into a powerful resource for research, conservation, and education.” And it’s a great way to keep track of your bird sightings through the years in your own yard or beyond. Just click on the “My eBird” tab to see details of your own sightings through the years.
Your observations show where birds are and when — valuable information for conservation. Make sure you learn the simple rules and follow the protocols. They’re worth learning since you can use this eBird tool for other projects, such as the Great Backyard Bird Count in February.
Here’s what eBird recommends about counting birds:
The key is to aim for your best count of the birds you saw and heard in the area you sampled. The goal should not be to have the highest count of a given species in eBird, but to provide an accurate count of what is present in the area you surveyed.
If you see a male Northern Cardinal in the first five minutes of your walk, and then a female later, count two. But if you see a male Northern Cardinal in roughly the same place on your way back, we recommend leaving your count at one. If you saw a male Northern Cardinal at the beginning of your walk, and then another .5 miles away, count two! Use common sense, and try your best to come up with the most accurate, yet conservative count.
You can also recognize individual birds in different ways, often due to obvious differences in the age or sex of the bird or other characteristics. Examples include male vs. female Northern Cardinals, white-browed vs. brown-browed White-throated Sparrows, or a molting House Finch. Individual differences can stand out and help ensure you’re counting all birds present.
- Learn about Bird counting best practices and the other rules for counting and reporting. Note that you can report birds you’re able to ID by sound only. In fact, if you hear birds you’re able to identify and do not report them, you should submit the list as “Incomplete.”
- Learn more about eBird.
- National Audubon: A beginner’s guide to using eBird
- The Help Center on the eBird website has lots of info on how to get started, the protocols etc. You can expand the “Getting Started” section to see all 9 topics.
- Take the free eBird Essentials course: “a free, self-paced course that will walk you step-by-step through eBird’s most popular features. You’ll learn how to keep checklists, explore data, and make your observations more valuable for science and conservation – all on your own time and all completely for free!” (Note: It’s free, but you have to set up an account for Cornell’s Bird Academy.)
- What scientists have learned from eBird data
- Here’s a free webinar about eBird
FeederWatch (November through April) – Easy!
SPONSOR: Cornell Lab of Ornithology
NOTE: There is a modest fee to register for this project each year.
This runs from November through April and tracks the birds at your feeders — and this includes the native plants and other bird-friendly features you’ve included in your yard not just manmade bird feeders! In fact, you even count hawks and other predatory birds that attracted to the birds feeding in your yard. Don’t count birds flying overhead not using food in your yard.
You count only two consecutive days in a one-week period and submit one combined list. In other words, you keep a running total over the two days a week you count, and you don’t add the second day’s count to the first day’s count since it’s likely many are the same individual birds visiting your yard each day.
Even if you only can submit a few counts, your information is still valuable.
Learn more about how to use it and explore the data
NestWatch
SPONSOR: Cornell Lab of Ornithology
“NestWatch is a nationwide nest-monitoring program designed to track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds.”
IMPORTANT: Learn how to do this properly and become certified by taking the online quiz. Study the info on the website as well as this manual.
BONUS for anyone: NestWatch also has a lot of information on proper placement and types of nestboxes for each species and more!
Learn more about NestWatch
NestQuest Go! – Easy!
SPONSOR: Zooniverse; Cornell Lab of Ornithology
From NestQuest Go: Among our collections are more than 300,000 nest records from the North American Nest Record Card Program that ran from the 1960s until the early 2000s. Some cards pre-date the 1960s, likely because some naturalists were collecting this information before the formal program existed. Thousands of nesting birds, were observed by citizen scientists, who then submitted detailed accounts of bird nesting behavior.
The Lab’s Nest Quest Go! is one of the Zooniverse projects, so to participate in this project, create a Zooniverse account. As of May 2023, they’re currently working on digitizing cards for the Tree Swallow project and the Swifts and Swallows project.
Learn more about how you can help transcribe historical data into digital form.
Great Backyard Bird Count (4 days in February) – Very easy!
SPONSORS: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, Birds Canada
In one extended weekend, the GBBC provides an valuable snapshot of the bird populations all over the world.
It’s exciting to see data being reported in real time all over the world by half a million people in 202 countries! This is also a good project for beginners, families, and other groups as well as for experienced birders.
Learn more about the GBBC and explore the 2023 data and in detail here.