Get ready for the 2025 Great Backyard Bird Count

A small golden breasted bird clings to the trunk of a tree — Long-billed, short-tailed, and very active, it’s common to see nuthatches moving along the trunks of trees. Photo by Patrice Bouchard on Unsplash

Heather N. Kolich, ANR Agent, UGA Extension Forsyth County

To all our nature lovers, I’m issuing a challenge: Help us double Forsyth County’s participation in the Great Backyard Bird Count this February.

Why count birds?

Birds are fun to watch and make a nice addition of color, sound, and motions to our yards, but what’s the point of counting them? Monitoring birds can tell scientists a lot. Comparisons of bird counts year after year can indicate changes in migratory patterns, overwintering sites, and the ranges and populations of different bird species. These changes could be alerts to environmental issues or indicators of environmental improvements due to land management changes.

A small bird with reddish, pink breast is perched on a metal bar — Purple Finches use their sturdy beaks to crack open seeds. If you don’t have a feeder, look and listen for them at the tops of tall trees. Photo by Camerauthor Photos on Unsplash

Birds are participants in ecosystem health as well as indicators of it. They provide environmental services such as:

Pollinating flowers to promote fruit and seed development
Spreading seeds to generate growth of new trees and shrubs in forest systems
Eating insects and small mammals to control pest populations
Eating carrion to clean the environment and cycle nutrients

What is the Great Backyard Bird Count?

A small brown and white bird, with a little bit of yellow in its wings — Pine Siskins eat seeds from pine cones. Look for these small birds clinging to the branch tips of conifer trees. Photo by Camerauthor Photos on Unsplash

2025 marks the 27^th year of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), a global community science initiative of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada to collect data on wild birds. It’s an easy and fun bird count for adults and kids, regardless of their level of birdwatching expertise.

The 2025 GBBC takes place from February 14-17. Participation requires a small time commitment and the following actions:

Decide where you’ll spend 15 minutes (or longer) watching birds.
Decide how you’ll enter data – through your smartphone or on your computer.
Download data recording apps and/or set up accounts for Merlin Bird ID or eBird.
Watch birds for at least 15 minutes from your chosen location sometime between February 14-17, 2025.
Identify all the birds you see or hear and estimate how many of each species.
Submit your location and bird identification checklist.

The Merlin Bird ID app is a great tool for beginning birdwatchers. With your free download, you can select your region and get a field guide complete with photos, sounds, a step-by-step identification tool, and the option to identify birds through photos that you take with your phone. Experienced birdwatchers and those who have participated in GBBC before may prefer to use eBird or eBird Mobile to submit data.

A small bird on the ground, gray breasted with some bright yellow around the forehead — Forest-dwelling White-throated Sparrows tend to hop along the ground seeking seeds to eat. They may take cover in brush piles. Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

Hundreds of species of birds migrate through Georgia in the spring (March 1-June 15) and in the fall (August 1-November 15). During the GBBC, we have a chance to record which birds spend the winter in our backyards and parks. Different birds nest in different habitats, such as meadows, forests, and near shores. If you enjoy counting birds, you can select several locations to make your GBBC observations and data collections. Birds are also active at different times of day, so that’s another opportunity to see, hear, and record different species.

Last year, birdwatchers in the U.S. submitted 212,673 GBBC bird sighting checklists, including 6,745 from Georgia, and identified 676 species. There were 101 GBBC bird counters from Forsyth County in 2024. This year, I’d like to double that participation.

To get ready for the GBBC, visit https://www.birdcount.org/. There, you’ll find links to download the Merlin and eBird reporting apps, photos from previous GCCB events, an opportunity to register for online learning events, and tools to see real-time GCCB reporting.

If you prefer in-person learning, Forsyth County Extension has teamed up with Forsyth County Public Library to offer a bird identification class with a practice GBBC birdwatching session. These events will be hosted at Hampton Park and Denmark libraries on Saturday, February 15, 2025 from 10:30-11:45 a.m. (Note: Denmark Library opening is still pending at the time of this writing. Please check the FCPL website at https://www.forsythpl.org/denmark-library for updates.)