Community Science

About the Great Backyard Bird Count

Every February, 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.

Each checklist submitted during the GBBC helps researchers at Audubon, 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 300,000 participants submitted their bird observations online, creating the largest instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations ever recorded.

The 27th annual GBBC will be held Friday, February 16, through Monday, February 19, 2024. Please visit the official website at birdcount.org for more information.

"This count is so fun because anyone can take part—whether you are an expert, novice, or feeder watcher. I enjoy discovering the birds that occur in my own back yard and on my block and then comparing with others. Get involved and see how your favorite spot stacks up."
Chad Wilsey, vice president and chief scientist, Audubon

Birds can surprise us! During the 2022 GBBC more than 300,000 Snow Geese turned-up in Missouri. A surprise sighting of a Steller’s Sea-Eagle was a rare treat in 2022 for Maine residents. This large, distinctly marked raptor is a regular resident of coastal regions in Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia and parts of Russia during breeding season. For more on the results of the latest GBBC, take a look at the GBBC results.

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