The New York Times Has a Summer Birding Project, and They Want Your Help

The New York Times is asking people to go birdwatching this summer as part of a 4-month community-science project. Their aim: to help people connect with birds, and to use birders’ collective efforts to gather needed data. The project is open to people at any level of experience—there will be different suggested activities for beginners and experienced birders.

The Cornell Lab is working with the Times to help make data collection easy and to store observations in one place—eBird, the world’s largest citizen-science database. Participants can use our free birding apps, Merlin, which helps identify birds by sight and sound; and eBird, which offers powerful tools for finding birds and reporting them via standardized checklists.

Participation is free—just complete a short signup process. You don’t need a New York Times subscription to participate.

If you already use Merlin or eBird you’re more than halfway there. Just complete the signup process so that the Times can fill you in on their plans (including prompts and challenges over the course of the project). Then keep identifying and reporting birds as you normally do.