Count Down Activity
Have you ever wondered how many birds live in your neighborhood and which bird is most numerous? How would you find answers to these questions? Most people would say that's simple, just count them. But how could you count all the birds in your area when they are always moving, hard to see, and fly through the air? And, how would you know that you hadn't already counted the same bird before?
Bird specialists called ornithologists have these troubles too when they try to count birds. To help solve this problem, they decided to ask people from all over North America to watch and count birds in their backyards, local parks, and other natural areas for four days of the year. Each year for the last two years, hundreds of people have volunteered to count birds and report their findings as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count.
In this activity, you will choose two states or provinces, look at the Great Backyard Bird Count data, and use it to find out what types of birds and how many were counted last year. You will record this information in a Bird Count Data sheet and summarize it in graphs. You will then present your findings at an Ornithology Conference.
To find bird count data visit Bird Source's Great Backyard Bird Count. Select the state or province you are interested in and click on the "Show Me!" button. The bird count data for that state will come up. At the top of the screen, you will see a map of the area with the numbers of people who were observing and counting birds in different parts of the state or province. Below the map is a list of the "Number of reports" (how many reports were sent) and "Number of birds" (how many of each bird was identified and counted). Look at the column on the right called "Number of birds" and write down the first three birds and their numbers in the Results Table on your Bird Count Data sheet. Repeat this procedure for the second state or province you chose. Be sure to record the number of species observed too.
If you want to know more about your most numerous birds (the first ones listed in each of your tables), look them up at Animal Diversity Web or USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
To learn more about the Great Backyard Bird Count go to BirdSource Presents Great Backyard Bird Count
To see bird count data collected over 100 years of winter holidays, go to Christmas Bird Count and look at the database, the maps, and the Christmas Bird Count News.
Now, complete your Bird Count Data sheet and get ready for the conference!
The Integrating Technology into Science Instruction webpages project is partially funded by grants from The Boeing Company and The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Integrating Technology into Instruction is a project of Target Science (target@laep.org) and is displayed on the Los Angeles Educational Partnership Learning Exchange. Target Science is an initiative of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership.
Updated May 2000