Feb 13, 2013 3 min read

This is the weekend to become a citizen scientist, with or without binoculars.

The Audubon Society’s 16th Great Backyard Bird Count starts Friday and ends Monday and bird lovers of all ages are invited to join the count for any or all of the four days, and then file their information online.

It’s as easy as sitting at the window and counting the feathered friends who come to dine at your bird feeder like they’ve been doing all winter long. But keep a bird book on hand just in case you see a chickadee that looks a little different than the rest. When submitting scientific data, accuracy counts.

These admittedly seedy eateries in backyards across America do attract some well-known customers – cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, titmice, wrens, nuthatches and mourning doves.

Put suet balls on the menu and the downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers just might drop by for a nosh. But not all common birds are that easy to spot.The various families of chickadees, finches and sparrows take a sharp eye to tell them apart. Some have rusty caps on their heads, some have distinctive marks on their cheeks. Eagles have confusing plumage coloration depending on their age, ravens resemble crows and some birds are only truly identified by their song.

To the patient bird watcher, learning to spot these differences is part of the challenge and the fun.

This mid-February bird feeder count is a good introduction to scientific data gathering, especially for kids with an eye for nature and numbers, or those who might be looking for a science project to turn in for extra credit.

The Audubon website is easy to navigate and participants sign in and create accounts for the count.

Bowlby and Flenniken libraries have the official GBBC website bookmarked for those who don’t have the Internet at home.

Audubon offers tips that will make your count accurate while drawing scientific perimeters around the data gathered.

For each species, report only the highest number seen at one time in each area that is watched for at least 15 minutes to a half an hour or longer. Bird feeders are considered a count area and so is taking a walk of less than a mile through neighborhoods or parks and reporting what you see.

Submitting checklists includes answering questions about location, range of habitat, and how long you counted. Record the high number for each species spotted that day for each location. Checklists are filed for each day or for each new area counted that day.

Counting birds helps science measure the earth’s environmental health because birds are affected by pollution and changes in the climate and their habitat.

Audubon has been collecting data for more than 100 years and much of it has been from volunteers who love watching birds.

For more information go online at www.birdsource.org.

For Internet access, contact Bowlby Library at 627-9776 or Flenniken Library at 966-5263.