Why doesn’t FeederWatch collect wind data?

Wind certainly does seem to affect the number of birds visiting feeders. When Project FeederWatch was first established, participants were asked to provide wind data. At that time many participants complained because it was too hard to determine wind speeds. Unfortunately, there are many problems with recording wind data.

• Winds are often quite variable over the two-day period. Should participants record maximum wind velocity? If so, does this really tell scientists anything if the winds quiet down and activity at the feeders returns to normal at some point during the count? In such a situation, maximum bird counts would be the same as if it had not been windy.
• Participants might have trouble assessing wind speeds in a consistent manner. If one participant uses a report in the newspaper while another uses a wind guage at home, the variation in methods makes comparisons difficult.
• To add wind data, we would have to add fields to the database and online data entry tables–an expensive proposition.

Without a method to accurately record meaningful wind data, we do not want to burden FeederWatchers with additional tasks.