How to Participate

1. Sign up – If you have not yet signed up, join today! During the season, it takes a few weeks from when you sign up for print materials to arrive, but you can begin counting right away.
2. Select your count site – Choose a portion of your yard that is easy to monitor, preferably an area that is visible from one vantage point. Even if you don’t provide feeders, you can still count birds for FeederWatch.
3. Choose your count days – Project FeederWatch runs from November 1 through April 30. For each count, select two consecutive days as often as once a week. We recommend that you leave at least five days when you do not count between each of your two-day counts. Counting less often is fine. Even if you only count once all season, your data are valuable.
4. How to count – Watch your count site as much or as little as you want during each two-day count. For every species you can identify, record the maximum number of individuals visible simultaneously during your two-day count. Keep one running tally across both days. This way you won’t count the same bird twice.
5. What to count – Count all birds you see in your count site during the day that are attracted to resources that you provide, even if they don’t visit feeders, but ignore
   birds that simply fly over your count site.
6. Optional additional data – There are several types of additional information you can record and submit with your bird counts: 1) mammals that you see in your count site, 2) sick birds and bird mortality, and 3) behavioral interactions and predation events.
7. Report your counts – Submit counts through the Your Data section of our website or the FeederWatch mobile app.

All counts are important

FeederWatch participants often stop counting their birds because they believe that their counts are not important. Typically they are seeing the same birds every week, or they are seeing very few or no birds. While some FeederWatchers see amazing birds, a wide variety of species, or large numbers of birds, most FeederWatchers see low numbers of what might be characterized as “predictable” birds. These counts are the heart of FeederWatch. Focusing on the extreme cases would provide a biased view of bird populations, and ignoring the common birds could be a major mistake. While we are all thrilled by unusual sightings and high counts, it’s the everyday observations of common birds that are so important for monitoring bird populations. Learn more about why every count matters.

The FeederWatch app is currently available for Apple and Android mobile devices. You can use the FeederWatch app to keep track of your counts and submit your counts directly to our database. The app is connected to the Cornell Lab’s All About Birds online guide with detailed species information, including photos, identification tips, natural history, and a range map. You can also access FeederWatch’s common feeder birds interactive tool to see which birds prefer which foods in any region of the U.S. or Canada.

Instructional Materials

FeederWatch participants have the option to receive the following materials. Please note that if you opt out of print materials, you must subscribe to our electronic newsletter to receive project updates and reminders.

• Welcome Letter
• Full-color poster of common winter feeder birds, painted by noted bird artist Larry McQueen and Evaristo Hernández-Fernández. Birds in the East are featured on one side and birds in the West are on the other side (see pdf of a combined mini version)
• Bird-Watching Days Calendar featuring photos from FeederWatch participants (U.S. only) or Birds Canada wall calendar (Canada only), to help you keep track of your counting days.

Winter Bird Highlights and FeederWatch eNews

All participants have access to Winter Bird Highlights, our annual summary report, and the FeederWatch eNews.

Why is there a fee to participate in Project FeederWatch?

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada are non-profit organizations supported primarily by participant and membership fees. Project FeederWatch would not be possible without the support of our participants—scientifically and financially. FeederWatch’s participant fees pay for website and database maintenance, data analysis, participant support, printing and shipping project materials, and dissemination of information learned from FeederWatch data. The fees also help cover the cost of creating a year-end report, Winter Bird Highlights. While FeederWatch staff constantly seek other sources of funding, the reality is that without participant fees, the project would have to shut down.