Bird Counting Begins As Australia’s Largest Citizen Science Event Kicks Off

Birdlife Australia’s initiative, Aussie Backyard Bird Count, has kicked off this week in celebration of National Bird Week to aid in tracking and protecting native birds.

Last year over 88 thousand Australians counted a record breaking 3.4 million birds during the event and Birdlife Australia are hoping to beat those numbers this year.

The data from this year’s bird count will be especially critical in measuring the impacts of the recent devasting bushfires on the bird population.

Aussie Backyard Bird Count Ambassador, Chris Bath, spoke about why this project is important and why lots of people should get behind it.

Chris says that you can either download the Birdlife app or go to their website and sign up to start submitting your bird count.

She says that you don’t need to be a bird expert to get involved because the app and website have an ID section to help you identify the species of bird.

“Punch in the shape of the bird… the visual things that you would see and then the colours of the bird and then it will put up a few photos of options that you can check so they help you ID the bird,” said Chris.

“The great thing is, and this is what I say to people, if you don’t know anything about birds it is kind of like a treasure hunt and it gets a bit addictive.”

She states that isn’t so much about the exact count of birds, rather it is the distribution that Birdlife is interested in.

“They are interested in the distribution of where birds have gone particularly after the bushfire season last year…it would be interesting to see which birds are in which areas.”

Aussie Backyard Bird Count runs all week with registrations and submissions open until Sunday the 25^th October.

Sign up here!