Join Us February 17-20, 2023.

Celebrate 26 Years of Counting Birds!

Birds are everywhere, all the time, doing fascinating things. Join us, February 17-20, 2023, when the world comes together for the love of birds. Count for as little as 15 minutes in your own backyard to help expand our understanding of birds.

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a free, fun, and easy event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations.

Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from beginning bird watchers to experts, and you can participate from your backyard, or anywhere in the world.

PHOTO BY DAN OLSON.

Each checklist submitted during the GBBC helps researchers at the National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada learn more about how birds are doing, and how to protect them and the environment we share. Recently, more than 160,000 participants submitted their bird observations online, creating the largest instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations ever recorded.

The 26th annual GBBC will be held Friday, February 17, through Monday, February 20, 2023. Visit the official website:
birdcount.org
for more information and check out the latest educational and promotional resources.

Bird populations are always shifting and changing. For example, 2014 GBBC data highlighted a large irruption of Snowy Owls across the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes areas of the United States. The data also showed the effects that warm weather patterns have had on bird movement around the country.

On the program website, participants can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during and after the count. We hope you can join us!