Great Backyard Bird Count worldwide this Friday

This video from the USA says about itself:

27 January 2015

This is some general background and information on the 2015 Great Backyard Bird Count that takes place all over the world! This is the 18th year for this event and is sponsored by The Cornell Lab for Ornithology, National Audubon and Bird Studies of Canada. Everyone can participate – YOUNG AND OLD – birder or NOT! It’s easy and fun! JOIN US!

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA:

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) begins this Friday, February 13! Count birds for just 15 minutes, or count all 96 hours until the end of Monday—j ust be sure to count!

The GBBC broke records in 2014—with more than 140,000 people from 135 countries counting more than 33 million birds. Help us achieve even bigger numbers this year!

Read the GBBC 2015 preview—including the latest on winter finch movements and international birding expectations—on our All About Birds blog. Then get ready to count later this week. Registration is free and easy. If you’ve counted in the GBBC since 2013 or if you participate in another Cornell Lab citizen-science project, you’re already registered…just count and have fun!

Study up on your tricky birds: Is that a flicker or a sapsucker? A Black-capped Chickadee or a Carolina Chickadee? A Cooper’s Hawk or a sharp-shinned? This Tricky Bird IDs primer will help you distinguish these species.

Pledge to Fledge: New this year, the GBBC is joining a grassroots campaign to encourage birders to mentor someone else and share their love of birds. Take the pledge online and you’ll receive a tip sheet on “How to Fledge a New Birder.”

Thanks to everyone who took part in the 18th annual Great Backyard Bird Count on February 13-16. People sent in more than 147,000 checklists from more than 100 countries. In all, you reported a record 5,090 species, equal to nearly half of all bird species in the world. In many parts of North America the cold, windy, snowy weather made birding challenging, but participants saw enough Snowy Owls to suggest an “echo flight” had occurred. Sightings ranged from winter visitors like Pine Siskins in North America; to an enormous flock of Bramblings in Europe; to reports elsewhere in the world of two birds that aren’t even officially described as species yet—an owl and a tapaculo. Read the full roundup and see how your region did.