Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time. It is a global bird counting event during which thousands of bird watchers across the world look for birds for four days in the second week of February each year. The information generated from GBBC helps scientists learn how birds are affected by environmental changes. 

Did you know? Birders of Salem have contributed the maximum number of checklists in 2019 and 2020 GBBC, the most by any district/county in the world! Since 2015, members from our team are on top of the world rankings in terms of most checklists submitted in the individual and group category!