Sign Up For Worldwide Bird Count Day

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Do you love sitting in your own backyard watching house finches and sparrows come-and-go?

Or hitting the hiking trail, binoculars hanging from your neck, seeking an elusive bird that you've never seen before?

Whatever your style of bird watching, eBird’s Global Big Day, put on by the prestigious The Cornell Lab, is seeking your participation on May 8.

"Last year, Global Big Day brought more birders together virtually than ever before," the event's website announced. "More than 50,000 people from 175 countries submitted a staggering 120,000 checklists with eBird, setting a new world record for a single day of birding. Will you help us surpass last year’s records?"

If this sounds like fun, here's how to join the effort —

How to participate

• Get an eBird account: eBird is a worldwide bird checklist program used by millions of birders. It’s what allows us to compile everyone’s sightings into a single massive Global Big Day list—while at the same time collecting the data to help scientists better understand birds. Sign up here. It’s 100% free from start to finish.
• Watch birds on 8 May: It’s that simple. You don’t need to be a bird expert or go out all day long, even 10 minutes of birding from home counts. Global Big Day runs from midnight to midnight in your local time zone. You can report what you find from anywhere in the world.
• Enter what you see and hear in eBird: You can enter your sightings via our website or download the free eBird Mobile app to make submitting lists even easier. Please enter your checklists before 11 May to be included in our initial results announcement.
• Watch the sightings roll in: During the day, follow along with sightings from more than 170 countries in real-time on our Global Big Day page.

And what if you can't tell the difference between a finch, a sparrow and a junco? Download The Cornell Lab's free Merlin Bird ID app. Even if you're not participating in the bird count, the app is incredibly useful for identifying birds that you see on a day-to-day basis.