Choose count days

The count season

The FeederWatch season begins on November 1 and runs through the end of April. The last day to start a two-day count at the end of each season is April 29.

Two consecutive days

FeederWatch count days are two consecutive days when you count the birds and mammals at your feeders. Count days always come in pairs. Pick days that will maximize the time you have to count. Schedule your count days in advance, if possible. We recommend that you pick no more than one set of count days per week and leave at least five days when you do not count between your counts. Do not change your count days just because you see remarkable numbers or kinds of animals. Doing so would bias your data. If you are unable to count during a particular week, that’s okay. The more often you count, the more valuable your data becomes, but there is no minimum required number of counts, and your data are valuable even if you are only able to count on a few occasions.