Aussie Backyard Bird Count starts 19 October

Next week you can join thousands of people doing a stocktake of Australia’s birdlife.

More than 800,000 birds from 672 species were counted last year. This work was done by 9,000 people who each became a citizen scientist for the week.

This year the Aussie Backyard Bird Count will be held from Monday 19 October through to Sunday 25 October.

The event organiser, Birdlife Australia, is hoping that more than one million birds will be counted this year. Birds can be counted in your backyard, at your local park, the beach or anywhere else in your area that you choose to spend 20 minutes.

You don’t have to stand still – count some birds while walking the dog.

Anyone interested in birdlife can help – you don’t have to be an expert at identifying birds. Last year the highly visible rainbow lorikeet was the bird with most recorded sightings.

Each observation period is just 20 minutes. You can do as many observation periods as you want, or just a couple on the weekend if that’s all you have time for.

It helps to have a pair of binoculars.

If you participate, you’ll instantly see live statistics and information on how many people are taking part near you and the number of birds and species counted across your neighbourhood and the whole of Australia!

Getting involved

If you want to get involved you should register before the count starts, on Monday 19 October.

Observations can be recorded via the Aussie Backyard Bird Count website.

Or you can use the Aussie Bird Count app which can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below

Just by submitting a checklist during the Aussie Backyard Bird Count you could win a prize! Check out the prizes here.

If you want to know more here are answers to some Frequently Asked Questions.

Birds of the Redlands

About 300 different species of bird have been sighted in the Redlands, about a third of all bird species found in Australia.

As well as common backyard birds like crows, noisy miners and magpies, we have many shorebirds like pelicans, herons and egrets.

Migratory shorebirds such as the bar-tailed godwits and Eastern curlews returned to the Redlands a few weeks ago.

So we have a lot of birds to count.

Pictures of many local birds can be seen in Redlands2030’s  Wildlife of the Redlands Gallery.

Redlands’ Erica Siegel has taken many photos of local birds which can be seen on her website.

 

Redlands2030 – 16 October 2015