Cornell Cooperative Extension

Saratoga County
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The Great Backyard Bird Count

  • Friday, February 14, 2025, 12:00 AM - 11:45 PM
  • Saturday, February 15, 2025, 12:00 AM - 11:45 PM
  • Sunday, February 16, 2025, 12:00 AM - 11:45 PM
  • Monday, February 17, 2025, 12:00 AM - 11:45 PM

Each February, for four days, the world comes together for the love of birds. Over these four days we invite people to spend time in their favorite places watching and counting as many birds as they can find and reporting them to us. These observations 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 participatory-science project (also referred to ascommunity scienceor citizen science) to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real time. Birds Canada joined the project in 2009 to provide an expanded capacity to support participation in Canada. In 2013, we became a global project when we began entering data into eBird, the world’s largest biodiversity-related participatory science (community science or citizen science) project.

How to Participate

Photos clockwise from top left: April Gaydos in Mexico, Sophie Skipper in United States, Pipope Panitchpakdi in Thailand, andMiguel Angel Montenegro in Bolivia.

Participating is easy, fun to doalone or with others, andcan be done anywhereyou find birds.

Step 1: Decide where you will watch birds.

Step 2: Watch birds for15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days,February 14–17, 2025.

Step 3: Identify all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location and use the best tool for sharing your bird sightings:

  • If you area beginning bird admirer and new to bird identification, try using the Merlin Bird ID app to tell us what birds you are seeing or hearing.
  • If you have participated in the countbeforeand want to recordnumbers of birds, try the eBird Mobile app or enter your bird list on the eBird website (desktop/laptop).

The Cornell Lab

Birds Canada

 

Last updated December 9, 2024