The Great Backyard Bird Count
A cardinal pair Since 1998, each year in the second week of February, bird watchers around the world can be part of the Great Backyard Bird Count. This year it will start on Friday, February 16, 2018, and end on February 19, 2018. Participation is free and it only takes 15 minutes of your time. Best of all, you can send in the results from your smartphone!
The Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is one of the over a thousand “Citizen Science” projects that encourage their amateurs (non-professional scientists) to participate in scientific research. With the advent of our new digital technologies, scientists in virtually every discipline you can imagine, have come to realize that they can tap into the interests of people all over the world to help them solve problems and advance science.
The Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is one of the over a thousand “Citizen Science” projects that encourage their amateurs (non-professional scientists) to participate in scientific research. With the advent of our new digital technologies, scientists in virtually every discipline you can imagine, have come to realize that they can tap into the interests of people all over the world to help them solve problems and advance science.
Benjamin Franklin Scientific research has always been constrained by lack of funding, manpower, lack of local interest or poor communication. Today, smart phones and the internet are drastically changing all that. Now it is possible for a scientist studying a particular problem to reach out to like minded people and engage them in finding solutions anywhere in the world
The word “Citizen Scientist” was used for the first time in mid-1990s by Rick Bonney, who used scientific data collected by amateur birdwatchers. “Citizen Science” is a buzzword, but actually has been practiced for a long time and back in the day, it was called “gentleman scientists”. Think of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Charles Darwin. Their experiments and observations were all self-funded and not part of any university science department. Indeed, most scientific advancement was made by wealthy gentleman amateurs, who had the time, interest and money to pursue their curiosities. It wasn’t really until the 20th century that governments took over the labs in a large way. In recent years, some philosophers called for going back to nature-loving amateurs, who could collect valuable scientific data. Citizen scientists now partner with professional scientists and reach goals that would otherwise be too expensive or time consuming to achieve.
The word “Citizen Scientist” was used for the first time in mid-1990s by Rick Bonney, who used scientific data collected by amateur birdwatchers. “Citizen Science” is a buzzword, but actually has been practiced for a long time and back in the day, it was called “gentleman scientists”. Think of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Charles Darwin. Their experiments and observations were all self-funded and not part of any university science department. Indeed, most scientific advancement was made by wealthy gentleman amateurs, who had the time, interest and money to pursue their curiosities. It wasn’t really until the 20th century that governments took over the labs in a large way. In recent years, some philosophers called for going back to nature-loving amateurs, who could collect valuable scientific data. Citizen scientists now partner with professional scientists and reach goals that would otherwise be too expensive or time consuming to achieve.
Engaging citizen scientists can take any form a researcher can dream up. Whether it is creating a video game for people to play so that researchers can better map retinal neurons (Eyewire- Princeton University), or creating a website and database for cataloguing data on bee populations in the midwest (Beespotter- University of Illinois), anyone can now be enlisted to help.
Here are a few of their projects which I find quite amazing:
Brooklyn Atlantis- looking at water quality, pollution, wildlife and robotics;
Digital Access to a Sky Century- an astronomy project;
Galaxy Zoo- astronomy;
Monitoring Day- sample local bodies of water for quality;
Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network- helping in weather forecasting;
Measure Night-Sky Brightness- documenting light pollution.
If you are interested to get the full list please go to http://citizenscience.org/, or you can peruse over 1200 projects at Scistarter at https://scistarter.com/.
Here are a few of their projects which I find quite amazing:
Brooklyn Atlantis- looking at water quality, pollution, wildlife and robotics;
Digital Access to a Sky Century- an astronomy project;
Galaxy Zoo- astronomy;
Monitoring Day- sample local bodies of water for quality;
Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network- helping in weather forecasting;
Measure Night-Sky Brightness- documenting light pollution.
If you are interested to get the full list please go to http://citizenscience.org/, or you can peruse over 1200 projects at Scistarter at https://scistarter.com/.
Woodpecker The Backyard Bird Count is a good example of how we all could be part of a global citizen science project. You do not have to be an expert to watch birds. The GBBC provides you with a pictured list of birds and you just count what you see and send it in.
How does it work? First you go to http://gbbc.birdcount.org/ and scroll down to “How to Participate” and just continue.
They also give you a GBBC Toolkit with Instructions, Bird Lists, Online Guides & Tricky Bird, and an eBird Mobile App. You can also participate in a Photo Contest and see photos of last year’s winners.
How does it work? First you go to http://gbbc.birdcount.org/ and scroll down to “How to Participate” and just continue.
They also give you a GBBC Toolkit with Instructions, Bird Lists, Online Guides & Tricky Bird, and an eBird Mobile App. You can also participate in a Photo Contest and see photos of last year’s winners.
European Starling You do not have an excuse if you live in the city. You can see birds when you look out the window or you can go to the nearest park. Birds can be seen everywhere.
When you go to last year’s summary you realize how big the project is: GBBC received 181,609 checklists; 6,259 species were observed and 29,589,903 individual birds were counted. You might be also surprised to learn that nearly 5 million snow geese and 2.4 million red-winged blackbirds were counted. I could not believe that the European Starling (an invasive species) is by far more numerous than the American Crow!
Become a citizen scientist and be part of one of the thousands of projects that will interest you.
When you go to last year’s summary you realize how big the project is: GBBC received 181,609 checklists; 6,259 species were observed and 29,589,903 individual birds were counted. You might be also surprised to learn that nearly 5 million snow geese and 2.4 million red-winged blackbirds were counted. I could not believe that the European Starling (an invasive species) is by far more numerous than the American Crow!
Become a citizen scientist and be part of one of the thousands of projects that will interest you.
Nuthatch
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