The Great Backyard Bird Count

Every year at this time comes the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). For four days in February, birders are called upon to go to all sorts of locations and observe the birds. Count them for each day and then submit them to a site http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ , with the web site implying that all birds come from it. So I decided to observe and count the birds at my house.

In doing so I have found some unusual things this year. A brown thrasher has shown up at our feeder area, and I thought it did not come until later in the spring. For the first time in years, a mockingbird has shown up at our feeder. We get a few of them here but I have not recorded any at our feeder for the past couple of years. The most unusual birds this year are a song sparrow, which does not normally show up at our feeder, a yellow-rumped warbler, and most of all, a ruby-crowned kinglet. I thought the kinglet at first was a goldfinch, but then when it produced red on its forehead, I looked at the bird books again. We also saw three bluebirds at once.

I have been recording the numbers of the birds, using GBBC rules. Here is a table showing the top ten birds at my house:

SPECIES	AVERAGE
Dark-eyed Junco	6.0
White-Throated Sparrow	3.5
Mourning Dove	3.0
Carolina Chickadee	1.6
Tufted Titmouse	1.3
Northern Cardinal	1.3
American Robin	1.1
Nuthatch	1.1
Blue Jay	1.0
European Starling	1.0

This differs from the GBBC list in that there are fewer cardinals at my house and perhaps more mourning doves. I think over a year that the mourning doves will top the list. Juncos and White-Throated Sparrows are higher but they are winter birds here in Virginia; they vanish in the summer.

So now I have done my part in helping us determine which bird species are common and which are rare.