From Your Window to the World

Whether you’re sipping coffee by the kitchen window, refilling a feeder on a cold morning, or pausing to listen for birdsong outside, these small moments of watching connect us to something much bigger. It often starts quietly, a flash of wings, a familiar visitor, maybe an unexpected guest, but each glance becomes part of a shared story unfolding across backyards, parks, and neighborhoods everywhere. This week, those everyday observations take on new meaning as we turn our attention to the Great Backyard Bird Count, a simple reminder that even the birds outside your own home help create a global snapshot of wildlife in motion.

What Is the Great Backyard Bird Count?

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a worldwide bird-watching event that takes place over a single winter weekend each year. During those few days, people across the globe pause to notice the birds around them and share what they see. Whether you’re in a city, a small town, or somewhere in between, your observations become part of a collective snapshot of bird life during the heart of winter.

What makes the Great Backyard Bird Count special is how open it is. Anyone can take part, experienced birders, families, kids, first-timers, and casual observers alike. You don’t need special equipment or expert knowledge. If you can watch birds, you can participate. Even a short window of time, like 15 minutes, is enough to contribute something meaningful.

Participating is simple: watch the birds wherever you are, take note of what species you see and how many, and then submit your sightings online or through a mobile app. That’s it. Each checklist helps scientists better understand where birds are, how populations change, and how wildlife responds to shifting seasons, all built from countless everyday moments of observation happening at the same time around the world.

Why the Great Backyard Bird Count Exists

Birds are constantly responding to the world around them, shifting food sources, changing weather, and evolving habitats. While a single sighting might feel small, patterns begin to emerge when those observations are collected over time. The Great Backyard Bird Count exists to help scientists see those patterns clearly, using real observations from real places, year after year.

Winter plays an especially important role in that story. It’s a season of stress and strategy for birds, when survival depends on food availability, shelter, and weather conditions. By focusing on a winter weekend, the count captures where birds are choosing to spend this challenging season and which species are thriving, adapting, or becoming less visible. This information fills in gaps that can’t be seen from spring surveys alone.

What makes the data powerful isn’t any single checklist, it’s the thousands of everyday observations happening at the same time across continents. Together, they form a living map of bird life in motion. Rather than signaling crisis, the Great Backyard Bird Count invites curiosity: What’s changed since last year? Who’s showing up in new places? What patterns are quietly unfolding right outside our windows? It’s science built on attention, patience, and the simple act of noticing.

How to Get Involved

Getting involved in the Great Backyard Bird Count is intentionally simple. You don’t need to travel anywhere special or change your routine, just take a little time to notice the birds already around you. Your backyard, a local park, a balcony, a trail, or even a favorite window all count as valid observation spots.

All you’re really doing is watching, counting, and sharing what you see. Take note of the different types of birds you observe and how many of each you spot during your watching time. You don’t need to know every species with certainty, best guesses are welcome, and learning as you go is part of the experience.

When you’re done watching, you submit your sightings online or through a mobile app. That’s it. Even a short session, as little as 15 minutes, contributes valuable information. Whether you watch once or multiple times over the weekend, each checklist adds another piece to the bigger picture.

The basics:

• Watch birds anywhere you like, yard, park, balcony, or trail
• Count the birds you see during your observation time
• Submit your sightings online or through an app
• Spend as little or as much time as you want, every minute helps

No pressure, no expertise required, just curiosity, a little attention, and a willingness to look a bit closer than usual.

Join the world in connecting to birds February 13–16, 2026

https://www.birdcount.org/

Great Backyard Bird Count vs. Christmas Bird Count: What’s the Difference?

If you’re new to citizen science, it helps to know that the Great Backyard Bird Count isn’t the only way bird lovers contribute to long-term research. It’s designed to be short, flexible, and welcoming, a few days each winter when anyone, anywhere in the world, can take part. Whether you’re watching from a feeder, a park bench, or a balcony, the focus is on accessibility. Families, first-timers, and casual observers are encouraged to join in, making it an easy entry point into the world of shared wildlife discovery.

The Christmas Bird Count, on the other hand, is a much older tradition with a more structured approach. It’s organized around defined geographic “count circles” and coordinated teams, often led by experienced birders. These counts follow established methods and typically involve longer observation periods, careful planning, and deep local knowledge built up over decades.

Both efforts play important, and complementary, roles. The Christmas Bird Count provides continuity, expertise, and detailed regional data. The Great Backyard Bird Count brings in fresh voices, global participation, and countless backyard perspectives. Together, they paint a richer picture of bird life across seasons and generations. These two counts work hand in hand, one built on tradition and expertise, the other on accessibility and worldwide involvement, reminding us that there’s room for everyone in the story of watching and understanding birds.

PixCams Connection: Watching Changes How We See

At PixCams, we believe that watching wildlife isn’t about chasing highlights, it’s about slowing down long enough to notice what’s already happening around us. Cameras help create that pause. They give us permission to linger, to revisit moments, and to see patterns we might miss in real time. A quick glance becomes a quiet study. A single visit becomes part of a larger story.

Rewatching footage often reveals subtle changes: who shows up at different times of day, how feeding behavior shifts with weather, or which birds appear only during certain weeks of winter. These everyday observations add up. They remind us that wildlife moves in rhythms, seasonal, local, and deeply connected to the places we live. What feels ordinary on one day can become meaningful when viewed over time.

That same philosophy carries into events like the Great Backyard Bird Count. Small moments matter. A chickadee at your feeder, a flock passing overhead, or an unfamiliar visitor on a cold morning all become pieces of something bigger. With a little patience and curiosity, watching turns into discovery, and suddenly your backyard isn’t just a backyard anymore. It’s part of a living, breathing snapshot of nature in motion.

Keep Looking

As the Great Backyard Bird Count approaches, consider this your simple invitation to slow down and look a little closer. You don’t have to be an expert or set aside hours of time. Just notice what’s already around you. Watch for birds that feel unfamiliar. Pay attention to how they move together. Take note of who shows up during the coldest mornings or disappears when the weather shifts.

Winter visitors often bring surprises, flocks arriving overnight, quiet regulars becoming bold at feeders, or a single unexpected guest stopping you in your tracks. These moments don’t need to be rare or dramatic to matter. Sometimes it’s the subtle changes that tell the most interesting stories.

If something catches your eye, consider sharing it, a quick photo, a short clip, or a simple note about what you saw. And if you’ve ever had a bird appear that made you pause and say, “What is that?”, you’re already doing exactly what this weekend is all about. Keep watching. Keep wondering. Small moments of attention, repeated over time, have a way of turning everyday encounters into meaningful discovery.