The garden bird survey is a citizen science project established to monitor the population trends of common garden birds in New Zealand. It attempts to answer the question, “Are garden bird populations increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable?”
Each year Landcare Research and Forest & Bird ask for the public’s help with a Garden Bird Survey. For just one hour anytime between 27 June and 5 July 2015, look for birds in your garden, local park or school grounds. You simply count the maximum number of birds that you see at any one time of each species and fill in the details either on-line or on a hard copy form – both of which can be found on the website along with instructions and a helpful guide to garden bird species. I’ve included a copy of the version from Forest & Bird here:
Garden Bird Guide
Also on the website you can find results from previous surveys, information on feeding birds, posters and activities for kids.
I was delighted to see how many different bird species I had in my garden (I was feeding them as I do every weekend):
1 tui- 1 myna
- 6 silvereyes
- 2 starlings
- 21 sparrows
- 3 blackbirds
- 2 chaffinches
- 2 fantails
- 1 thrush
- and even a kingfisher flew in at one point.
It was really fun to do, and great to take a closer look – I had never noticed the chaffinches before (they were females so almost blended in with the sparrows).
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