If you’re like me, you love watching the birds at your backyard bird feeder on a fall or winter day. Getting to know what kind of birds regularly come is fun, and I find myself wondering about new birds that occasionally appear and what has happened when regulars disappear. As it turns out, scientists wonder the same things.
Every winter thousands of volunteers across North America become citizen scientists and participate in a winter-long survey of feeder birds in their backyards, at nature centers, and in community areas. FeederWatch was founded in Ontario, Canada in 1976. The goal was to create an annual survey of winter feeder birds across North America. To reach this goal, in the 1980’s the Cornell Lab of Ornithology joined Bird Studies Canada to run Project FeederWatch. Today the survey stands apart from other such monitoring programs because of the detailed data it provides scientists on the distribution and abundance of winter birds across North America.
As one participant has said, “Project FeederWatch taught me so much in such a short time. I loved feeding and watching the birds before, but now it is much more interesting and useful.”
Project FeederWatch’s 39th season starts on November 1 and runs until April 30, 2026. And you don’t even need a feeder to participate. To learn more about Project FeederWatch and to sign up to participate in this great effort to help scientists better understand bird behavior during the winter, visit https://feederwatch.org/. While you are looking at the FeederWatch site check out the colorful trend graphics and top-25 lists showing data on individual species by state, province, and region.
COMING FOR THE HOLIDAYS: The 2025 Christmas Bird Count, December 14 thru January 5. In our region, the Olympia Circle will be counting on Sunday, December 14, and the Lewis County Circle on Saturday, December 20. To join a Circle contact Bill Shelmerdine at georn@hotmail.com for the Olympia Circle or Rachel Holland at lightningdash09@yahoo.com for Lewis County.
Tom Reynolds
