Citizen Science Project – Identification and counting of birds on the doorstep – News


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The organization Birdlife wants to find out with the help of the population which birds live in towns and villages.

“Hour of the Garden Birds” is the name of the annual campaign, which runs from May 4th to 8th this year. As the name suggests, you take an hour and note which bird species and how many birds you observe from your patio or balcony during this time. This data can then be Birdlife Switzerland website register.

Info, pictures and twitter tones

There you will also find a list of the most common bird species that can be found in the settlement area. You can print out this list, for example, and write down your observations on it, says project leader Ann Walter. “Then you only have to transfer the information to our online registration form and send it off.”

The organization has also put a lot of information, pictures and whistles on its website to make it easier for temporary ornithologists to identify the bird. But it’s also not a drama if someone types wrong or counts the same bird twice, says the project manager to the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”. The campaign is aimed at laypeople – everyone can take part, young and old, alone, as a family or in a group.

More birds in wild gardens

It is a so-called «citizen science project». An important goal is to get the population enthusiastic about bird life and to show how important the design of green space in towns and villages is. The more diverse the nature in the settlement area, the more native bushes and trees, the wilder the gardens, the more insects there are and therefore the more birds, says Ann Walter.

7000 reports, 120’000 birds

According to Birdlife, there are on average seven to eleven different bird species in the settlement area. Depending on where you live, there can be a lot more. The response to the call was considerable in each case. During the pandemic years, up to around 7,000 reports were received each year, and around 120,000 birds were counted. Last year, for example, around 300 school classes took part.

Incidentally, the house sparrow is the front runner when it comes to reports.

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