Grab your binoculars, pour some hot tea or chocolate into a Thermos, and get ready to join tens of thousands of other citizen scientists around the world counting birds for the biggest bird count on the planet. For the first time ever, the count will spread beyond the North American continent to all corners of the earth. Last year, 104,285 checklists containing a total of 623 species were submitted. Make your lists part of this impressive number in 2013! And know that you are making a valuable contribution to the understanding of bird populations and their movements in winter.

It’s easy. It’s family-friendly. And you don&srquo;t have to be a bird expert. If you know the birds that come to your feeders, you’re in. Though you may want to find a vantage point where you can keep an eye on your entire yard, you can also just watch from a window. Get the kids involved, too. There’s plenty of fun stuff for them on the birdcount.org website; just click on the “GBBC for Kids” button. You can also do your count at a park or schoolyard. In fact, you can count at a different location each of the four days. Just remember that you will need to enter to ZIP code for each location when you submit our data.

Here’s all you need to do to participate:

1. Count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count.
2. Count the greatest number of individuals of each species that you see together at any one time.
3. When you’re finished, enter your results at www.birdcount.org.

All the information you need to get ready for the count is available at Great Backyard Bird Count. Great Backyard Bird Count is a project of National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Bird Studies Canada and is sponsored in part by Wild Birds Unlimited. And, if you would like to share your experience or a special sighting with us, please contact us by clicking on “Contact WCAS” below.