HOW TO COUNT THE BIRDS:

  1. Count birds from your backyard, balcony, porch or window for AT LEAST 15 minutes, but you may count as long as you wish during the count period starting at 12AM on December 16th, and finishing 11:59PM on December 23rd.
  2. Make your best guess of what species you saw and how many individual birds you observed. 
  3. Record when, where and how long you watched for.  
  4. Enter your observations online at www.wrdsb/winterbirds, or complete the paper form and share it with us by email. Submit a new checklist for:
    1. Each new day
    2. Each new location
    3. Same day, same location if counted at a different time of day.
  5. When submitting your observations, you will be submitting using a Google Form, and if you are a student of the WRDSB, you will have to sign in using your WRDSB email address.
  6. The first section will require that you tell us your name, your teacher’s name and your school. This is so that we can honour you and your schools participation in our citizen science initiative.
  7. There are two ways to participate in this activity: You can watch birds at your bird feeder or observe them ‘in the land’ (in your backyard, from your porch or while out for a walk). In the Google Form, please pick the appropriate method of observation.  
  8. Next, we would like to know what birds you observed and how many. If you only observed them, but didn’t count how many individuals, put a “1” in the box. If you counted how many individuals of each species, please enter the number observed into the box. If you observed a species that is not listed, please write it in as an ‘Other’, give the name and enter how many.
  9. The last section is a measure of your effort. You will be asked for the date. Please pick the date from the drop-down menu.
  10. We would like to know when you observed your birds. Please tell us the time you started observing.
  11. We also need to know how long you observed birds for (in minutes – to the nearest 15 minutes is fine).
  12. The final question asks you where your made your observation and how far you travelled. We don’t need to know your address, just the nearest intersection. When describing how far you travelled, simply select the most appropriate choice from the drop down menu.  
  13. Please share with us your experience. Write a short description of what you did in the comments section. Did you see something you weren’t expecting?  Were you surprised by anything?
  14. When you are done, click the ‘Submit’ button! You should see a confirmation page that will give you the option of changing your submission if you think you made an error.
  15. Please share a photo of your birding experience (especially interesting bird pictures) by email or social media. 
  16. If you observe birds again during the count period, submit another checklist!

Please read our Birding Ethics guidelines so that we can all participate in a way that is safe, not only for ourselves, but our community and nature as well.

Thank you!