by Melanie B. Fullman, US Forest Service

So perhaps you talked to Santa a coupla weeks ago, about buying a bird feeder for someone else, or putting one on YOUR list. Now, in addition to merely watching birds, you can help count them! More than 800 bird species inhabit the United States, for some or all of each year. They face daunting challenges from environmental threats such as urbanization, agriculture, pollution, and climate change. No single scientist or team of scientists could possibly document where all of them are, or how their numbers change from one year to the next.
 
Fortunately, birds are fun to watch – millions of people do so every day. By reporting their sightings, bird watchers can help keep tabs on how birds are faring across the North American continent and beyond. Here’s how you can get involved.

Bird “Brains” Wanted

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long annual survey of birds at bird feeders throughout North America. Watchers are just people interested in counting birds. All skill levels and backgrounds are welcome to participate, including children, families, individuals, classrooms, retirees, youth groups, etc. The only requirements are a basic ability to identify locally common birds and to fill out a simple form. The Project is operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada.
 
At periodic intervals, FeederWatchers report the highest number of individual birds of a given species that they can see at one time; counting birds in view at a single point avoids counting the same bird more than once. The reports are submitted to the Cornell Lab over the Internet (preferred) or on paper forms. The data helps scientists track broad scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.
 
The counting site should be a feeder that can be consistently observed throughout the winter. As a general rule, participants should avoid counting feeders on property boundaries or check with the adjacent homeowner in the [unlikely] event that their neighbor is also counting!
Counts are conducted from November to early April. The survey starts on the second Saturday of November and runs for 21 weeks, through the first Friday of April. The last day to sign up for any given season is Feb. 28. Counting materials are shipped to participants in the fall or about 2 weeks after signing up. Counting days are selected by the participants but must be two consecutive days at least once every 2 weeks. It can be done during any part of the day.
 
Cornell University charges a $15 annual participation fee, which covers materials, staff support, data analysis, and a year-end report. FeederWatchers receive instructions, a bird identification poster, wall calendar, resource guide to bird feeding, and a tally sheet (gift idea!). Participants also receive a subscription to the Lab’s newsletter.
Project FeederWatch results are regularly published in scientific journals and are shared with ornithologists and bird lovers nationwide. These counts of bird abundance, or lack thereof, are part of a growing trend of “citizen science”, conducted by volunteers instead of just highly specialized biologists. Perhaps you’ve heard about or participated in the annual Christmas Bird Count, Great Backyard Bird Count, or springtime Breeding Bird Census? Each of these important volunteer efforts provides key information about bird populations, density, and migration patterns. When compared over time, they enable biologists to track meaningful changes.
 
Fast-Food Counters

In Ithaca, NY, FeederWatch researchers and students at Cornell University are fitting some of their birds with small transmitters. The small transponders are just 2 mm by 12 mm and weigh less than a tenth of a gram (a black-capped chickadee averages 11 grams); they are worn on the bird’s legs.

Each transmits a unique identification number to a reading device that has been built into a specially "wired" bird feeder. Whenever a bird with a transmitter visits the feeder, the bird's identity is recorded, along with the date and time of the visit. The same technology is used to track merchandise in stores and library books, and recently, passports. The same "microchips" are frequently implanted by veterinarians to help find, and hopefully reunite, lost pets with their owners.

Data from the transponders is already providing new information about the specific feeding behaviors of common backyard birds. In just one year, since November 2009, more than 650,000 visits to the wired feeders were recorded by 120 different songbirds. This data may eventually shed new clues on how feeding behavior is affected by weather and competition, the influence of feeder location (for example, edge vs. interior of a forest), and whether feeding patterns are related to gender and /or dominance status (birds in winter flocks often have well-defined hierarchies).

In related research, Cornell students are also studying how a bacterium infects finches and several other small songbirds, often leading to an eye disease. The transponders enable the researchers to track movements in both sick and healthy birds and to quantify where and how long they feed, and how the disease is passed from bird to bird.

For More Information
For more information about Project FeederWatch, visit www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw or call 800-843-2473 Mon. – Thur., 8 AM – 5 PM; Fri. 8-4 ET. There are tips on birds and bird feeders at www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/abtbirds_index.html.
For more information about local birds or the upcoming Christmas Bird Count, feel free to contact me or Bessemer Wildlife Biologist Brian Bogaczyk at 932-1330.
Hope to see YOU in the woods!
Seed Preference chart for local bird groups:

Attaching a transponder to a finch

Nuthatch at feeder