Oregonian bird watchers wanted: The Great Backyard Bird Count is underway

By Brian Bull (KLCC)
Feb. 19, 2023 6:55 p.m.
Dark-eyed junco. It's one of the many birds counted in the 2014 Great Backyard Bird Count.

File photo of a dark-eyed junco. It's one of the many birds counted in the 2014 Great Backyard Bird Count.

Rick Leche/Flickr Creative Commons

Fans of feathered friends, take note – a global survey of all things fowl and beaked kicked off Friday and scientists want your help.

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The Great Backyard Bird Count requires as little as 15 minutes a day through Monday, for folks to count avian species in their neighborhood.

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Barbara Gleason is co-owner of two Wild Birds Unlimited stores in Eugene. She says the data gathered helps scientists learn how birds are faring in certain areas, including changes in population.

“And get a sense whether those changes are because of habitat loss, or climate change, or fires,” Gleason told KLCC. “And then there’s just the general changing of populations, that we don’t really know what is the cause.”

Gleason says besides her backyard, she’ll check out birds at the Delta Ponds. She says one that fascinates her is the Black Phoebe, which she says has become more and more common in this area of Oregon.

Additionally, an app called eBird can be used to track birds, if someone wants to go digital instead of notepad and pencil.

Data can be shared on the Great Backyard Bird Count event website.

The count is a joint effort among the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and Birds Canada.

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