My Yard Counts!

Cornell Lab of Ornithology is looking for backyard birders to contribute to its new citizen-science project, My Yard Counts. For five months, the project combines observations around residences in rural, suburban and urban settings with information about yards.

By participating, you will help researchers identify the features in yards that are most important to birds. To help, all you have to do is count all the birds you see in the immediate vicinity around your residence during 20 minutes of bird watching approximately every week from April to August.

You'll fill out a one-time, online questionnaire about your yard or the area around your residence. Also, you'll have the option of keeping track of pet-wildlife interactions and reporting what you see online.

Please spread the word far and wide to backyard-birding friends!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service