You don’t need fancy equipment or special skills, just a window and a little bit of your time.

Project FeederWatch is a a joint research and education project of Birds Canada and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology wherein regular people observe and count their neighborhood birds periodically throughout the winter season (November 1 – April 30) and report back their observations.

From Birds Canada:

You don’t have to have a feeder. The plants, water and other features around our homes provide important habitats for birds year-round. To help birds, we need to understand how these habitats and the birds using them are changing over time. Your counts of winter yard birds tell us which species are doing well and which ones need our conservation attention.

Everyone is welcome. You don’t need to be an expert birder. You also don’t need to make a huge time commitment – you decide how much time you spend.Even if you count birds only once during the season, that is a helpful snapshot of the birds in your location.

What you see matters! It contributes to precision conservation and leads to concrete measures being implemented. It’s also incredibly therapeutic, satisfying and fun.

Both Birds Canada and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology have a variety of other similar citizen-science projects you can get involved in:

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Citizen Science Projects

Birds Canada Citizen Science Projects

Go for it!