Great Coastal Backyard Bird Count 2020
June 6, 2020
WHEN: Saturday, June 6
WHY: Get Outdoors Day
WHERE: Your backyard
A bird walk, as originally planned on this date, would be difficult to conduct with social distancing. Instead we’re organizing a backyard bird count that you can do from your own home. Simply look out the window or step outside as often as you like on June 6 and note what kinds of birds you see, and how many. Spend as little as 15 minutes or much longer; look any time of day or throughout the day. It could be a songbird at your feeder, or ducks in a wetland that you see through binoculars, or a raptor soaring high overhead: if you see it, it counts! Share your results with us, and we’ll collate everyone’s bird counts and report them back.
Download Oregon Coast Birding Trail Checklist
Use bird guidebooks, free apps such as Merlin Bird ID, or websites such as All About Birds and What Bird to help you identify the species of birds you see. We’re focusing this bird count on the Oregon Coast: species that live on the coast year-round, nest on the coast, or migrate through in early June.
If you snap a photo or video (of a bird, or of you birding), share it on social media! #NCLC_bird2020. Renowned local birder Mike Patterson intends to live tweet his bird count that day on Twitter.
This event is part of Get Outdoors Day, organized by the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. Click to find more virtual events, activities, videos, and stories highlighting conservation all across Oregon.
If you don’t live on the coast, you may enjoy making up your own one-day backyard bird count wherever you are. Here’s a link to an easy-to-use statewide Oregon bird checklist and a website with Washington bird lists for the entire state and county-by-county.
Photo: Yellow warbler, photographed by NCLC Land Steward Eric Owen in his Warrenton backyard