Backyard Birding Challenge

DOS sponsors a Delaware Yard List competition through eBird

A FUN COMPETITION FOR BIRDING AT HOME

Delaware Backyard Birding Challenge

Join us for the Delaware Backyard Birding Challenge.  Keep track of all the birds you see in your yard for the year at www.ebird.org and see how your total compares to everyone else.  A great way to bird with a low carbon footprint!

You can follow the progress of the challenge at www.ebird.org by clicking “explore data” and “yard totals” and setting the region to “Delaware”.

Not everyone has a yard with the potential to attract that many species, but you never know what you will find until you look.

By sharing your lists with eBird, you are contributing your sightings to science, conservation, and the greater understanding of bird distributions.  Any observations shared to eBird will be useful, even if you only see a few common species.

Eastern Bluebird

Here are the rules:

  1. Any species your see or hear while you are physically in your yard counts.
  2. Enter your sightings at www.ebird.org.

Here is how to get set up:

To facilitate comparing different types of yards, yards are divided into categories:

  • (a) apartments (window and balcony birding only);
  • (b) yards less than 1-acre;
  • (c) yards 1-5 acres; and
  • (d) yards greater than 5-acres.

Here is how to set up and name your yard:

  1. Go birding in your yard for the first time.
  2. Afterwards, visit www.ebird.org.  (If you don’t have an account, set up your free personal account.)
  3. Go to “Submit Observations” and find your house on the map. For security reasons, you may not want to mark the exact location of your house, but something nearby.  Name your location “Your last name Yard” and put the letter indicating the size of your yard at the end. For example, “Smith Yard – c”.
  4. Enter your sightings on the checklist and submit them.
  5. After you submit your first checklist, you need to “Add Your Yard” so that eBird knows you want it to show in the “Yard Results” section. Just go to the “Explore Data” tab. Click “Yard Totals” then click the “Add a Yard” button.  Select your yard name from your list of locations, and save it. You only have to do this once.  Your yard totals will now show in the “Yard Totals” section, and everyone will be able to see where your yard sightings rank for the year, month, and overall yard life-list total.