If you are not venturing far from home for the long weekend, then the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has a great family activity that takes you to the wonder of your own backyard.

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is on from February 14 - 17. During the Bird Count dates, volunteers around the world count the birds they see for at least a 15 minute period and report their findings on a checklist at the GBBC website.

Sarah Ludlow is a conservation science coordinator with the Nature Conservancy of Canada. She explains that in Canada, the event is administered through Birds Canada and it has been running since the late 1990s. The count provides a snapshot of what is happening in the bird world in terms of population, migration, and range during the four day period. The beauty of the program is that the count is designed to be done from your own back yard.

Ludlow calms the fears of those who think they have to be bird experts to participate.

“You don’t need to be an expert ornithologist or biologist. If you can identify a chickadee or a house finch or a house sparrow, you can do this. All you need to do is record which species you see and how many of each and then enter that onto the website for the count.”

The count aids in knowing which migratory birds are starting to appear at this time. The migratory patterns can then be mapped and portrayed using animations online to show the time, extent of migration, and routes. People can come to understand the vast expanse of migratory ground that bird species cover across North America. Those animations can be viewed on the ebird website at ebird.org.

“That information is used by scientists at different levels, and it’s one of the ways we track how the bird populations are doing.”

The state of those bird populations is of grave concern to the Nature Conservancy. In its communique, the NCC relays that Canada lost 40 percent to 60 percent of shorebird, grassland bird and aerial insectivore (birds that feed on insects while flying such as swallows) populations. A North American study revealed that nearly three billion birds have disappeared since 1970. At the same time, Canada has lost more than 70% of its wetlands in the settled southern regions and more than 95% in some urban and agricultural areas. These are alarming statistics that warrant the public’s attention.

Those interested in participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count can do so by heading to birdcount.org.