Calling all birders: It’s time to count

By REX SPRINGSTON, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: February 9, 2008

Even if you don’t know a towhee from a tow truck, you can contribute to avian science during the 11th annual Great Backyard Bird Count.

In the Feb. 15-18 event, people of varying skills will look for birds and post their findings online.

With tens of thousands of participants nationally, the survey can provide information on birds’ population trends—which species are up and which are down.

In addition to being helpful to people concerned about birds—many species are in decline—the data can potentially shed light on human health threats such as global warming and West Nile virus, experts say.

Bryan Watts, director of the College of William and Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology, called the count a valuable form of citizen science.

“Having that many eyes out on the landscape—you can’t duplicate that with paid professionals,” Watts said.

Richmond Audubon Society members will lead field trips for local participants. All but one are free to the public.

Last year, Richmonders submitted 255 checklists identifying 14,262 birds of 87 species. They included eagles, hawks, songbirds and cryptic little creatures called brown creepers.

The survey can be fun for people who aren’t hard-core birders, said Pam Dummitt, president of the Richmond Audubon Society, which has about 1,400 members.

Minimum time required for watching: 15 minutes.

“If you want to do it from your backyard, that’s fine,” Dummitt said. “If you want to go out on a field trip, that’s fine. It’s just the perfect flexible activity.”

From a scientific standpoint, a potential drawback is the possibility that some unskilled people will misidentify birds, W&M’s Watts said.

A Great Backyard Bird Count Web site offers tips for identifying birds, among other aids.

To keep errors to a minimum, reviewers check reports of unusual sightings and sometimes call people who report them, said Pat Leonard, a spokeswoman for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The Cornell Lab and the National Audubon Society, two conservation groups, lead the bird count. It is sponsored in part by the Wild Birds Unlimited system of stores.

The survey can point to possible changes in the environment, Leonard said.

For example, it has shown a 35 percent decline nationally in the number of American crows since 2003—a possible result of West Nile virus, which arrived in the U.S. in 1999 and is particularly deadly to crows.

In another example, tree swallows—insect-eating birds that migrate south in winter—have showed up as far north as New York in recent years during the February count. Is that a sign of global warming?

For now, you can’t be certain of the cause in either case, Leonard said, but more surveys may help provide answers.

“As more time goes by and we build up more data, you can tell if these changes are a temporary blip or if they are truly widespread trends that are not going to go away.”

For the record, a towhee is a black-and-white bird with reddish sides that looks vaguely like a robin—and nothing like a tow truck.
Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or