How-to Questions
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What if I make a mistake when entering my checklist—is there a way to go back and make a correction?
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If I see a bird that’s within my line of sight but not in my own yard, can I include it in my tally?
Answers
You can count birds anywhere: in your backyard, at a local park or wildlife refuge, or wherever you like to watch birds.
Spend at least 15 minutes for each day and location where you'd like to count. If you can spend more than 15 minutes, you’ll get a better sense of which birds are in your area.
Yes, you need to submit a new checklist for every new location, even if it’s on the same day. You may do a count in your own yard, for example, then move on to a city park, then to a wildlife refuge. That’s three different checklists for the same day. Remember, do NOT add up the birds of a particular species you see—only record the highest number of each species seen at any one time.
Not everyone enters their data during the four-day count. We set a March 1 cutoff date for everyone to submit their observations. After that, unusual sightings must still be verified by regional reviewers and information from paper forms entered. Once all the information is in, scientists must review it to identify notable trends.
Do your best to figure it out. Take a look at your state or province checklist on the GBBC web site to help narrow down the possibilities. See if you can find the bird you're looking for in a field guide. The All About Birds web site also provides photos, sounds, maps, and information about birds. For help in distinguishing similar-looking species, visit the GBBC page on tricky IDs. If you're still unable to work out a species ID, that's OK. You don’t have to report every species you see. When you enter the data on the web site, just be sure to check the box indicating that you are NOT reporting everything you saw.
- What if I make a mistake when entering my checklist—is there a way to go back and make a correction?
We can delete an erroneous sighting, but we can't add anything to your original count. If you want to add the correct species, you can just enter a new record. You don't have to submit your whole list again, just submit a checklist with the correct information. Then send us an email telling us which species to delete from your record. Make sure you tell us which state you are in, and give us the submission number if at all possible. We'll then be able to go in and delete the mistake.
If you see a bird that is rare for your area, it may not show up on the initial checklist. Go to the top of the checklist page and click on the “show rarities” button and that should give you a list of all the birds ever seen in your area. If you really did see something that isn’t on that list, shoot us a message so we can add it to the list.
First count the birds in a small part of the flock. Then estimate how many blocks of equal size would make up the entire flock. Multiply number of blocks by the number of individual birds you first counted to come up with an estimate. For a more detailed explanation of this technique click here.
Yes, if you are confident in your ability to identify the species by sound. But it gets trickier if many birds of one or more species are singing or calling. Add these birds to your tally only if you are very sure of what you have heard.
Yes, but only if they are close enough for you to make a positive identification. It might be easy enough for a single bird at close range. But if a flock of gulls flies overhead, it may be pretty tough to distinguish which species they are—especially if it’s a mixed flock. So only mark down a flying bird if you have an unmistakable ID.
Out-of-range species or large flocks of some species are flagged by our database for review by a local reviewer before the sighting is added to the database. If the reviewer has any questions about your sighting, he or she will contact you. This is how we try to ensure the highest possible accuracy in the database.
Instead of watching in defined blocks of time, many people prefer to keep track of birds on and off throughout the day. If you do this, simply indicate the time you started and the time you stopped, and then estimate the time in between that you actually spent watching birds. For example, you may have been watching intermittently from 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M., but estimate that time actually spent watching birds was about two hours. It doesn’t have to be exact—this gives us a general idea of the amount of effort expended. You would NOT put down that you watched birds for nine hours continuously (unless you really did!).
Yes—if you have not already submitted a checklist. Simply add the bird to your tally and mark your time as you would for intermittent observations, as described above. If you’ve already submitted your checklist, you will have to submit another one noting this bird, and the time you were observing.
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If I see a bird that’s within my line of sight but not in my own yard, can I include it in my tally?
Yes. As long as you are sure of the identification, any bird you see
while you’re participating can be entered on your tally sheet and
counted.
All GBBC data need to be entered online. Paper forms are still accepted, though we strongly encourage participants to enter their own data on the GBBC web site. If you know someone without a computer who wants paper forms to record data, you can help by printing data forms for them. They need to use a new form for each day of the count and/or for each new location. You can enter their data for them on your own computer, (just make sure to enter their name and address, not yours). The data can also be entered at a library computer.
