Each and every day, birds are around us. 

In fact, you’d be hard pressed not to spot at least one bird on any given day. Birds have fascinated people for centuries, for good reason. Many have bright bold feathers like the Summer Tanager; others have beautiful songs like the Song Sparrow. Some, like the Scott’s Oriole, flaunt both. It’s easy to see why so many people are enamored by birds. They grace our backyard bird feeders, our biggest cities, and the most remote areas on our planet.

Every time that you spot a bird, you have the opportunity to contribute to something bigger-- by recording your sighting in eBird, a major online database that has been tracking birds for many years. 

Whether you spend 5 minutes or 5 hours birding, your sightings help piece together a larger puzzle about what birds do. By using data gathered by the public, scientists understand the timing and frequency of bird movements all across the world. It doesn’t end at migration; it helps track the spread of invasive bird species like the Eurasian Collared Dove and the European Starling.

Putting your sightings on eBird helps everyone-- from local birders looking for a new life bird on their list, to species threatened with extinction, like the Yuma Ridgway’s Rail or the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. 

Click here to learn more about eBird, and here for a guide on how to use it.