My Great Backyard Bird Count

This is how it went

Dan Pfeifer wrote about his intention to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. I’d heard of it but never joined the count. This year I did.

The official count time was February 18–21. And, you don’t have to just count in your backyard. Any spot will do. Or, there is a “traveling” count while walking or hiking. The rules require that you count birds that you see or hear for at least 15 minutes each day.

There are a couple of apps you can download and use to help identify birds and to submit your counts, or you can submit via the website. I used the eBird App.

Although you can submit multiple counts each day, each count is submitted separately. I submitted counts from my backyard, walks I took in my neighborhood, and a visit to the retention pond “open space” about 6 miles from my house.

The website had a “halftime report” as of 12 am on Sunday, February 20th:

Halftime Highlights

• 6,152 unique bird species observed
• 173 participating countries
• 114,901 complete checklists
• 135,321 sightings saved with Merlin Bird ID

Although I am knowledgeable about the wading birds and ducks in my area, I’m fairly ignorant of other birds and have a difficult time identifying them by sound.

I have another bird app called Picture Bird that I downloaded a couple of years ago but rarely used. The app will identify a bird from a photo or you can use the app to record the sound of a bird to get an identification. I used Picture Bird a lot to help with my count

By sound, I learned that we have two kinds of crows — American Crows and Fish Crows. They are identical in appearance but have very different vocalizations.

For the first time, I identified Carolina Chickadees, Song Sparrows, and White-throated Sparrows.

I thought it was interesting that the app questioned that I saw Muscovy Ducks! There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t see at least one, usually several, but the app seemed to think they’re rare in my area. When you add a count for a bird that isn’t considered typical to your area, you have to add a comment. Over and over, I typed: There are many Muscovy Ducks in my neighborhood. Last night, I received an email from a Regional eBird Reviewer for my county (Didn’t know there was such a thing!). Turns out I was using the wrong Muscovy Duck category and he caught my mistake. I was using the designation for wild Muscovies that are only found in Central and South America. That’s why I was prompted to give a comment each time. He instructed me to change my choice to the “Muscovy Duck (established feral)” designation, which is for domestic Muscovies living semi-wild. So, last night, I pulled up all my checklists, made the necessary changes, and resubmitted them. It’s helpful that someone local is reviewing the checklists for various areas.

Here are my counts with a few photos. I couldn’t get photos of every bird but I got quite a few:

2/18/22 — Backyard (late afternoon): 15 Black-belling Whistling Ducks 2 Muscovy Ducks 2 Double-crested Cormorants 1 Great Egret 1 Snowy Egret 1 American Crow 1 Carolina Wren

2/19/22 — Walking in my neighborhood (late morning): 18 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks 1 Muscovy Duck 1 Turkey Vulture 2 Red-shouldered Hawks 4 American Crows 1 Carolina Chickadee 2 Carolina Wrens 2 Northern Mockingbirds 1 Song Sparrow

2/19/22 — Walking in my neighborhood (early evening): 32 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks 14 Muscovy Ducks 1 Anhinga 1 Great Egret 1 Snowy Egret 36 White Ibis 3 Red-shouldered Hawks 2 Northern Mockingbirds 2 White-throated Sparrows

2/20/22 — My backyard (early morning): 38 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks 6 Muscovy Ducks 1 Great Egret 1 Bald Eagle 5 American Crows 1 Northern Cardinal

2/20/22 — My backyard (late morning): 2 Muscovy Ducks 1 Wood Stork 1 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Great Egret 7 White Ibis 2 American Crows 2 Fish Crows 4 Carolina Wrens 3 Northern Cardinals

2/20/22 — Walking in my neighborhood (mid-day): 1 Great Blue Heron 1 Snowy Egret 2 Red-shouldered Hawks 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 8 American Crows 2 Fish Crows 4 Carolina Wrens 6 Northern Mockingbirds

2/21/22 — Park Avenue Open Space (six miles from my house in the early morning): 1 Great Blue Heron 1 Wood Stork 1 White Ibis 1 Northern Mockingbird 2 Northern Cardinals

2/21/22 — Walking in my neighborhood (late morning): 6 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks 1 Muscovy Duck 1 Little Blue Heron 6 White Ibis 3 Red-shouldered Hawks 1 Pileated Woodpecker 2 Blue Jays 7 American Crows 4 Fish Crows 6 Carolina Wrens 2 Savannah Sparrows

2/21/22 —Walking in my neighborhood (late afternoon and my last count): 7 Muscovy Ducks 2 Hooded Mergansers 1 Snowy Egret 1 Little Blue Heron 7 White Ibis 2 Red-shouldered Hawks 1 American Crow 1 Fish Crow 3 Carolina Wrens

One of the best features of the ebird.org website is the real-time submissions map below. The number of 40,128 in the upper right indicates the total checklist submissions as of 12:41 pm on 2/21/22. All the dark gray areas on the map are places where checklists were submitted, and the yellow dots are checklists that were submitted at the moment I took the screenshot.

You can share your bird photos with your checklists but I didn’t. Learning the apps and how to do the counts was enough to deal with this time. Maybe next year I will include my photos. Honestly, I was a little intimidated by the “Uploading Media” instructions that occupied an entire page in small print! If I start reading it now, I may be ready in 2023!

I thoroughly enjoyed participating in the count and encourage others to do the same. I am certainly aware of the many birds we have, especially the wide selection of ducks and wading birds, but the count helped me to be aware of all the smaller birds that I don’t see easily and couldn’t identify by sound before this project. Even now, after the count has ended, I find myself listening closely and identifying birds.

Here is a link to the final Great Backyard Bird Counts around the world:

© Dennett 2022