February 14-17 was the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). It’s an annual citizen science project where for four days, people around the world spend as much time as they can counting birds and reporting the data into either Merlin or eBird.

This helps scientists understand and keep an eye on bird populations. And you can enter bird sightings any old day of the year, but the GBBC is like a real-time snapshot of global bird populations.

Also, it’s just a good time. Knowing bird lovers everywhere are all doing the same thing at the same moment as you is pretty cool.

I didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary this year, just my usual backyard crew. Here’s a list of the species I entered over the four days if you’re interested:

Dark-eyed Junco
Black-capped Chickadee
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Tufted Titmouse
American Goldfinch
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Finch
Purple Finch
Eastern Bluebird
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Robin
Carolina Wren

But it’s always fun (and a little bit humbling) to see what other people are sighting around the world as the photography rolls in.

And if you missed this year’s GBBC, don’t worry! While you wait for next year, you can always take part in Global Big Day on May 10, 2025, or October Big Day (I’m not sure of the date yet), which are the same concept, just condensed into 24 hours of hardcore birding.

Speaking of October, that’s when the photos in this post were taken; I missed October Big Day in 2024, but I snapped all these photos in or around my backyard between the 19-31.