Select your count site

Your FeederWatch count site should be an area that is convenient to observe, such as a backyard outside a kitchen or dining room window. Select an area as large as you can consistently observe from week to week. Your count site should include features you maintain that attract birds or mammals, such as feeders, a water feature, and/or plantings. We prefer that you select a count site that you can observe from one vantage point, but multiple vantage points are acceptable so long as you never add counts together (if you see a male cardinal out your front window and a female cardinal out your back window, you should only report one cardinal because that’s the most you saw from one vantage point at one time). Choose obvious boundaries, such as the border of your yard or an area within a courtyard. Most count sites are roughly the size of two tennis courts, but can be as small as a single feeder. Once you have chosen your site, count birds and mammals at this same site all season, if possible.

Visit the Feeding Birds page in the Learn section of this website for more information about how to create a count site that will be attractive to birds.