Some Guidelines for Count Parties:
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Please feel free to count birds at your feeders and around
your neighborhood for as long as you would like on the day
of the count.

Keep a tally of the number of individual birds you see of
each species but be conservative.  A good rule of thumb is
to only report the largest number of a species that you see
at one time or that you can be sure are different individuals.
For example, if a Cardinal comes to the feeder and leaves and
then 10 minutes later a Cardinal again comes to the feeder,
you would report that as 1 Cardinal unless you are sure that
it was 2 different birds (for example, one was a male, the
other a female).

Please keep a record of your effort during the count.  On the
compilation form, note the time of day that you started
and stopped counting as well as the number of hours spent
counting.  For example, if you watched the feeders for an
hour in the morning, an hour in the evening and off-and-on
throughout the day for another hour, you might report 3 hrs
of feederwatching between 8AM and 5:30PM.

If you go out before dawn or after dark to listen for owls,
please keep a separate tally of the time spent owling.

Also, if you count birds while walking or driving through
your neighborhood, keep separate tallies for the number of
hours spent and miles travelled while counting by foot,
by car, by boat, etc.

Only report the number of birds of each species identified
from midnight to midnight on the day of the count.  However,
you may report additional species identified within the period
of 3 days before to 3 days after the day of the count as
"Count Week" birds by placing a "CW" by their name on the
checklist form.

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