Male and Female American Goldfinch at thistle feeder
We all know that big changes are happening in the world around us, at an ever-accelerating rate, and that those changes are really affecting the birds we love. (All the other flora and fauna, too, including us – but this is a bird blog so we’re gonna talk about birds.) You would like to do more, but what can you do? CITIZEN SCIENCE!
One of the joys of ornithology, along with a handful of other natural sciences, is that there is still room for ordinary people to add to the base of knowledge. Even better it is possible to do so as you’re drinking your morning coffee.
In November, the next season of Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project Feederwatch gets underway. The idea is pretty simple – ask people across the country to record the birds who come to their bird feeders. You’ve already got the feeders out, and you’re already watching to see who comes. When you join the project, you’ll pay closer attention for a few days every other week and take a moment to jot down your counts. Not so hard, right?
But you’re not an awesome birder, you say. Well, you don’t need to be. As with many Citizen Science programs, they offer a lot of support. You will need to know the "regulars" in your yard, and they have a lot of reference material that will help you in that regard (it’s almost worth signing up for that alone). Once you get to know your normal yard visitors, then the unusual ones stand out and you learn more about how to identify them.
Golden-crowned Sparrow on thistle feeder
Okay, so there’s something in it for you - you learn more about the birds. What’s in it for them? In biology projects, the most difficult, time-consuming aspect of any project is gathering data from the field. Imagine trying to establish thousands of field monitoring stations across the country, in as many habitat types as possible, and then trying to sustain that for a long enough period to see real trends. It would be nearly impossible to fund such an effort if you had to pay a researcher to watch every single plot, but if you could get help from thousands of ordinary citizens, then you could sustain a large scale, long-term monitoring program. The data gathered can help track the population changes from climate change, development (local and at important migratory stops), West Nile Virus, etc. You’ll be watching the canaries in the coal mine (even if they’re house finches).
They also study seed preferences and other aspects of your yard and feeding station, so some of the results will help you in the much shorter term. Another study is looking at an eye infection which has been spreading among house finches, especially in the east.
House Finch with eye disease (left)
Do you live along a major flyway? Are you in an area that is undergoing development? Does your part of the country always seem to be ignored in biological surveys? Do you manage your property in a way that encourages visits from migrating or wintering birds? Even if your "yard" is a balcony or fire escape with a feeder, your input is useful. All they ask for is a few hours every other week (you set the schedule, and it can be flexible) from November through April.
They have created a classroom version of the program as well. For several years, I sponsored a friend’s class of third graders (it’s suitable for older students as well).
Project Feederwatch is not the only opportunity; over the next several months we'll have Christmas Counts, the Great American Backyard Bird Count, Breeding Bird Surveys... lots of stuff. And all year round, there's eBird, which lets you keep records of sightings during your birding trips and adds that info to a national database (talk about win-win).
I had to take a few years off from Feederwatch, but this year I plan to be back at it - how about you? Project Feederwatch Info (opens in new window)
Eatin' seeds can take a lot of concentration....
This diary was originally written in fall of 2007, and revised slightly for today. If anything, Project Feederwatch and similar programs are even more crucial, given that the pace of climate change seems to be even faster than we thought then. Then there are the after-effects of the BP fiasco... we really need to see what's happening to the birds.