Birding: Coming together for the love of birds!

Published 10:58 am Friday, February 5, 2021

By Dr. MADELINE KALBACH
For the Observer

Northern flicker, hybrid

In a few days from now the Great Backyard Bird Count will be a happening. This is an important four-day event that takes place annually in February. This year the count will take place from Feb. 12-15.

Given the pandemic that we are currently experiencing, counting and watching birds is one of the safest and most rewarding activity we can do. We can do it from home in our own bubble, all the while observing the rules for covid-19 protection. Participation is free and just asks you to commit counting birds for as little as 15 minutes, or longer if you wish, on one or more of the four days of the count. You report your sightings online.

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If I were doing the “Great Backyard Bird Count” today, I would be counting house finch, downy woodpeckers and northern flickers along with other species. Some days 20 house finch are seen. There are always at least two downies in the yard, but sometimes three or four are seen all at the same time. Northern flickers have been more abundant than usual this year. Yellow-shafted, red-shafted and even a few hybrids have been seen.

The purpose of the count is to help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations. “Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) was the first online citizen science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real time” (birdcount.org).

The results of the GBBC in 2020 are most interesting. It is estimated that over 268,000 people from 194 countries participated in the 2020 count. Six thousand nine hundred and forty-two (6,942) species were reported overall and over 27 million individual birds were counted.

If you decide to participate, I hope some of you will send me a list of what you see, the date and where you see them. A photo or two could be sent as well. I will write an article on what birds were seen on the Peninsula during the Great Backyard Bird Count with the information I receive from you, the readers. I also hope to hear from friends or readers who live in places other than on the Long Beach Peninsula. In addition, I will report what I count in my backyard. We’ll see what kind of a picture we can paint for our part of the GBBC. Observations can be sent to editor@chinookobserver.com.

You can learn how to participate in the count in your backyard or neighborhood by going to the website www.birdcount.org. If you are interested in having some beautiful bird posters that advertise the Great Backyard Bird Count, they can be found there as well.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an international partnership between The Cornell Lab, Audubon and Birds Canada. It is an international happening in which people can come together for the love of birds. As the Great Backyard Bird Count website says, “Each year people from around the world come together to watch, learn about, count, and celebrate birds.” So, polish up your binoculars and/or fill up your bird feeders! Get ready for this exciting bird count event.

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