The thought that counts

This year’s Garden Bird Survey needs your help!

The 2019 New Zealand Garden Bird Survey will take place between the 29^th of June and the 7^th of July. During this time thousands of Kiwis will take one hour out of their day with a hot cuppa and a pen and pad to sit down and record the birds in their backyard, local park or school.

Last year’s survey was a big success with over 2000 people taking the time to camp out and keep count. This year we’re aiming for even greater numbers. This is vital, as the ‘citizen science’ approach of the organisers needs as many people as possible taking part.

Establishing the clearest understanding of the bird population allows scientists and others to utilise this data in a number of important ways. There is now a substantial amount of this data to work with. Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research has been running the survey for 12 years now, with close to 35,000 individual results.

It’s super simple to sign up and get down with the count too.

“All you need to do is select a garden, park, or school ground, look for birds for one hour, and for each species record the highest number seen (or heard) at one time,” says Dr Eric Spurr, the survey organiser.

There are plenty of place to go online to help identify which birds are which in your backyard. Look for some helpful tips here before you start, then follow these rules.

1. Visit the Garden Bird Survey website to get started
2. Select a garden, park or school
3. Choose any ONE day between 24 June and 2 July 2018
4. Look and listen for birds for ONE hour
5. Use a tally sheet (available on the website) to record for each species the highest number seen or heard at one time
6. Submit your results online at: gardenbirdsurvey.landcareresearch.co.nz

Image below courtesy of Phil Botha on Unsplash