Pennsylvania Game News - June 2011 - 44

Great Backyard Bird Count Produced a “Gold Mine” of Information
SOME 60,000 bird watchers of all ages from across North America took part in this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), a joint project of the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada. During the event, February 18-21, participants identified 596 species and filed 11.4 million individual bird observations. Two new species never reported to the count before were a brown shrike in McKinleyville, California, and a common chaffinch recorded in Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador — both species well out of their normal ranges. In Alaska, a GBBC participant observed a Brambling at her feeder — the only one reported for all of North America. Observers also reported a surprising increase in evening grosbeaks, the highest number of observations ever for this species, and an increase that isn’t simply attributable to greater GBBC participation. A closer look finds this upturn especially marked in the northwestern U.S. and in Canada. This uptick is also supported by data entered so far this season from Project FeederWatch, a winter-long citizenscience project from the Cornell Lab and Bird Studies Canada. FeederTop 10 birds reported for Pennsylvania in the 2011 GBBC
1. European starling 992,701 2. Common grackle 2,225,625 3. Snow goose 73,964 4. Canada goose 58,656 5. Red-wing blackbird 34,334 6. Dark-eyed junco 22,521 7. Common crow 14,742 8. Mourning dove 13,318 9. Cardinal 11,908 10. American goldfinch 11,267 44

Watch data have shown sharp declines in evening grosbeaks over the past two decades for unknown reasons. (Only one was recorded in Pennsylvania this year.) Future counts may reveal if this year’s increase in GBBC grosbeak reports is a one-time fluctuation or part of a long-term trend. For the third year in a row, checklists submitted to the GBBC topped 92,000. Participants set new bird checklist records in 11 states and in 7 out of 13 Canadian provinces and territories, resulting in a new overall checklist record for Canada. With tens of thousands of people watching birds and reporting what they see (online), they create a snapshot showing the whereabouts of many hundreds of bird species across the United States and Canada. Over time, these reports provide valuable information to scientists tracking changes in the numbers and movements of birds from year to year. To find out more about these and other trends from the 2011 count, and for specific information on Pennsylvania, or any other state or locale, visit www.birdcount.org and click on “Highlights of 2011 GBBC.” Top 10 birds reported on the most checklists in the 2011 GBBC
1. Northern Cardinal 2. Mourning Dove 3. Dark-eyed Junco 4. Downy Woodpecker 5. American Goldfinch 6. Blue Jay 7. American Crow 8. Black-capped Chickadee 9. House Finch 10. Tufted Titmouse GAME NEWS

http://www.birdcount.org

Pennsylvania Game News - June 2011

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