Join Project Feederwatch
Written by Andy McCormick
Project Feederwatch, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a perfect long-term bird counting project for people who are staying close to home. Many new individuals have taken up bird watching since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now you can contribute to science while enjoying your backyard birds and learning to identify the more common species in your area.
The 2020-2021 year’s count began on November 14, 2020, and will continue until early April 2021. Participants will set aside a two-day period every two weeks in which they will watch their backyard birds. It isn’t necessary to watch all day, just being sure to regularly check the feeders and keeping a list of the numbers of birds and what species are spotted at a time. Then, once registered with Cornell Labs, you enter the data into the Project Feederwatch website. It’s fun and easy, and you don’t even need a feeder. Just choose a defined area in your yard and watch which birds use it.
You can join Project Feederwatch online at www.Feederwatch.org. There is a small fee of $18. The fee is $15 for Cornell Lab members, which includes year-long access to Birds of the World, the fantastic online encyclopedia of birds. The Project Feederwatch website also has maps and information about birds seen since the beginning of Project Feederwatch in 1988. You can join the thousands of birders contributing to our knowledge of birds in the winter months. Sign up and get started. Winter birding has begun!
Photo credit by Penelope Kipps.