Every year the Nature Center participates in a program called Project FeederWatch. This annual bird count (November – April) allows anyone and everyone to participate from the luxury of their own home – and despite the program name, you don’t even need a bird feeder! This activity is a great opportunity to become a citizen scientist. Nature centers and avid birders have uploaded tallies and data that can be accessed after signing up. This data, either recorded once a week or once a month, helps track bird distribution and abundance across North America.
Scientists use FeederWatch data as a “unique monitoring tool for more than 100 bird species that winter in North America.” Since 1987, the data collected has been used to publish papers in scientific journals as well as national magazines. If you would like to get involved at home, we encourage you to visit Project FeederWatch to learn more.