The 23rd annual GBBC has been announced! 14–17 February 2020
Join Us for the Next Count, February 14–17, 2020
It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!
1. Create a free GBBC account if you have never participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count or any other Cornell Lab citizen-science project, or have not participated in the GBBC since 2013. If you already created an account for the GBBC in the past, or if you’re already registered with eBird or another Cornell Lab citizen-science project, you can use your existing user name and password.
2. Count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the GBBC. You can count for longer than that if you wish! Count birds in as many places and on as many days as you like—one day, two days, or all four days. Submit a separate checklist for each new day, for each new location, or for the same location if you counted at a different time of day. Estimate the number of individuals of each species you saw during your count period.
3. Enter your results on the GBBC website by clicking the “Submit Observations” tab on the home page. You may also download the free eBird Mobile app to enter data on a mobile device. If you already participate in the eBird citizen-science project, please use eBird to submit your sightings during the GBBC. Your checklists will count toward the GBBC.
2018 Great Backyard Bird Count
March 16, 2018
By Marshall Iliff, Pat Leonard, and Kerrie Wilcox
Another edition of the Great Backyard Bird Count is in the books, with a great showing for the birds and the bird watchers who joined in from around the world. As always, participants tell us they really enjoy this opportunity to do their favorite thing and contribute to science at the same time.
Checklist and species totals for the 2018 GBBC have set two new records:
Species: 6,310 (2017 species total: 5,940)
Complete Checklists: 176,905 (2017 checklists: 173,826)
Estimated Participants: 192,456 (2017 participant estimate: 214,018)
Full results of the 21st annual GBBC here.
2017 Great Backyard Bird Count
The 20th was another record-setting year for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Explore the results here!
2016 Great Backyard Bird Count
Of course the 2016 Great Backyard Bird Count – the 19th – set records again for checklists submitted and species observed. Read the summary here!

2015 Great Backyard Bird Count
The results are in, and the 2015 Great Backyard Bird Count again set new records for number of species observed and number of checklists submitted!