Bird counts are one of our most popular activities. We participate in three – the Illinois-centric Spring Bird Count and two that are sponsored by national Audubon: Christmas Bird Count and the Great Backyard Bird Count. All these counts offer the everyday bird enthusiast the opportunity to be “citizen scientists,” collecting raw data for scientists to study and analyze; to make long term plans for land and wildlife management.
Each single bird count is a census that gives us a snapshot in time of the bird population at that particular moment. Viewed alone, one count’s collected data isn’t very informative. But over time, comparing the relative abundance of each species of bird to previous years offers a glimpse into the health or decline of that species. Like the caged bird in the mineshaft, bird populations can be used as an indictor of the well-being of our ecosystem.
For more information on the bird counts that we participate in, we offer the following links:
Spring Bird Count
Kane County Spring Bird Count Complete History 1972 – 2020 (Spreadsheet download)
Christmas Bird Count
Great Backyard Bird Count