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The Great Backyard Bird Count — This Weekend!

Got an extra 15 minutes for birds this weekend? If so, you’ve got time to join the Great Backyard Bird Count!

This free, fun, and easy event is open to bird watchers of all ages and helps create a real-time snapshot of bird populations. All you need to do is count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or longer, if you want!) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org.

Birders of all skill levels are encouraged to participate. Want to grab some coffee and watch the feeders for a little bit? Great Backyard Bird Count! Want to take a stroll in the park with your binoculars? Great Backyard Bird Count! Want to get on a boat and sail to the middle of the Gulf of Maine to see what birds are there? That sounds cold and dangerous and we don’t recommend it but Great Backyard Bird Count!!

Best of all, it’s good for birds. Every sighting submitted during the weekend helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn more about how birds are doing, and how to protect them and the environment we share. Similar to the Maine Bird Atlas, the information gathered as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count goes to a greater scientific good.

Last year more than 160,000 participants submitted their bird observations online. Let’s try to break that record during this  year’s Great Backyard Bird Count! Out your window or in the wilderness, all bird sightings count. Visit the official Great Backyard Bird Count site to learn more about how to participate, view data from previous counts, and learn about birds you may see. Good luck!