• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Outdoor Calling

a little site about the big outdoors

  • Stories
  • All the Birds
    • Life List
    • Backyard Birds
    • Bird Photos
  • Photo Galleries
    • Bird Photos
  • Projects
    • Backyard Birds
    • Osprey on the Kennebec
  • About

Go Big and Go Global, from Home

May 9, 2020 by aliciamacleay

It’s Global Big Day. Look outside today, notice any birds, and you can be part of the largest biodiversity-related citizen science project in the world. Consider it a home science lab for all of us.

Whether you see a lone bird or flocks where you live, record your observations on eBird, which is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and was founded with Audubon. Cumulatively, all of that collected data helps scientists understand global bird population trends and answer conservation questions. You needn’t be a veteran birder or ornithology professor to join in. With the free eBird app you can record species from the field or kitchen window, and keep track of the birds you see on a single day, and over a lifetime.

Not sure what that red-white-and-black bird is? Answer a few simple questions—size, colors, location—on Cornell Lab’s free Merlin Bird ID app for impressively accurate suggestions. Since downloading Merlin, I’ve been surprised by how gratifying it is to identity and learn a new species.

Here are some of the birds I saw in my yard and submitted this Global Big Day. Yes, that’s snow in May.

Chipping sparrow—looking handsome with his rufous cap
Red-bellied woodpecker—who named this bird?
American goldfinch—now his name makes sense
Hairy woodpecker—looks feathery to me
Black-capped chickadee—Maine’s adorable state bird

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Birds

Footer

  • Instagram

Outdoor Calling is created by Alicia MacLeay

© 2023 · Outdoor Calling · Powered by Imagely