Data on the
Wing Bird watchers’ aid sought for
database
By Scott Nicholson
Bird and nature fans can help build a local and national
database to track bird species and create a biological snapshot
of winter migration habits.
The Great Backyard Bird Count takes place Feb. 13 through 16,
with data collected by tens of thousands of volunteers each year.
The data serves to augment other types of bird counts and broadens
the picture of migration, habitat changes and species population.
Curtis Smalling, mountain biologist for N.C. Audubon, said there
were a couple of different ways to report on bird counts, and
people can choose as many locations as they like. People don’t
even have to leave their houses; they can contribute sightings
made from their bird feeders.
“It can be from anywhere,” Smalling said. “It can
be in your backyard or park or favorite place to bird. You can
do it from many different places, too, and submit different checklists.”
The bird count is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
and the National Audubon Society and is in its 12th year. Volunteers
take part by counting birds for at least 15 minutes on one or
more days of the event and reporting their sightings online at
www.birdcount.org.
Smalling said the public bird count helps augment some of the
more specialized biological surveys that often take months to
compile and record.
“The Great Backyard Bird Count is nice because it’s
a short window, basically a snapshot of where species are at that
time of winter,” he said. “As soon as you upload the
data, it’s available for mapping and all sorts of stuff.
It’s kind of instant gratification.
“It can be a beginner who knows only chickadees and crows,”
Smalling said. “Just put down the ones you know. Even people
who aren’t birders usually know more bird species than they
think they do. While the bird counts can be done solo, various
Audubon chapters help educate people and organize field trips,
so it can be a group activity or solitary.”
The data help researchers understand bird population trends across
the continent, information that is useful for conservation efforts,
as well.
“The GBBC has become a vital link in the arsenal of continent
wide bird-monitoring projects,” said Cornell Lab of Ornithology
director John Fitzpatrick in a press release. “With more
than a decade of data now in hand, the GBBC has documented striking
changes in late-winter bird distributions.”
People can submit digital images for the GBBC photo contest. Participants
are also invited to upload their bird videos to YouTube tagged
“GBBC.” Some of them will also be featured on the GBBC
Web site. All participants will be entered in a drawing to win
dozens of birding items, including stuffed birds, clocks, books,
feeders and more.
The relatively warm recent winters have yielded a few surprises,
but Smalling said he didn’t expect many this year, based
on current observations.
“It’s been a relatively slow winter,” he said.
“When we have a really cold November, we don’t have
a lot of strange reports. The ponds get frozen and the waterfowl
don’t come as often. In the winter, bird locations are really
tied to food sources, and you can see that on the Great Backyard
Bird Count.”
Last year, nearly 10 million birds were recorded during the count,
with nearly 86,000 checklists submitted. In Boone, 286 birds were
recorded, with the most common being the American goldfinch, Carolina
chickadee, and mourning dove.
Smalling said while the Boone area was well represented, researchers
could benefit from reports across the High Country.
“North Carolina has done a great job in submitting checklists,”
Smalling said. “The Charlotte area is usually first or second
in the country for reporting. We do need more data from the mountains
and a lot of rural places around the area. We get a lot of data
in Boone, but we don’t get a lot of checklists from the higher
elevations like Linville, Banner Elk and Beech Mountain, where
there are a lot of seasonal residents.”
Businesses, schools, nature clubs, Scout troops and other community
organizations interested in the GBBC can contact the Cornell Lab
of Ornithology at (800) 843-2473 or Audubon at citizenscience@audubon.org
or (215) 355-9588, Ext 16.
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