2012 Great Backyard Bird Count Results

It was a record-breaking year for the Great Backyard Bird Count!  Thank you to all who participated.  If you didn't participate in the citizen-science project this year, mark your calendars for Feb. 15-18, 2013.

Great Backyard Bird Count Highlights

By Marshall Iliff, Christopher Wood, Brian Sullivan, Dick Cannings, and Pat Leonard

March 19, 2012

Bird watcher by Brenda Chmiel, New Jersey,   2012 GBBC

Overview

The 2012 Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) was one of stark contrasts. Arctic-dwelling Snowy Owls and redpolls irrupted into the Great Plains and the West in the largest numbers ever recorded in the 15-year history of the Great Backyard Bird Count. Participants reported Eurasian Collared-Doves and Great-tailed Grackles in northerly locations, a sign of the species' continuing range expansion. And spring migration was already underway for several species including Red-winged Blackbirds, Sandhill Cranes, and Snow Geese. Even the Blue Jay, a species often thought to be resident, showed unusual patterns with low numbers recorded in much of the East.

By the Numbers

First, let’s look at the raw numbers. GBBC participants submitted a record-smashing 104,151 checklists with 17.4 million individual bird observations! Participants set new checklist records in 22 states and in 6 Canadian provinces. Across the continent and in Hawaii, participants identified 623 species. Read more...

______________________________________________________________________________

You can see the results from the United States and Canada here.  South Carolina ranked seventh in species reported for all the states, provinces and the District of Columbia.  You can check here to see how your community ranked within South Carolina.  Note that the coastal communities had the advantage with regard to number of species, but Spartanburg had far and away the greatest number of checklists submitted!