[photo credit: Descanso Gardens]
Dave Weeshoff, vice president and conservation chair of the Pasadena Audubon Society and a wildlife volunteer at Descanso Gardens, will lead the event, which includes a lecture and a birding tour through the 150-acre garden. No previous birding experience is required.
The Great Backyard Bird Count, which runs February 13 through 16 over Presidents’ Day weekend, asks participants to spend at least 15 minutes watching and identifying birds, then submit their observations online. The data goes to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada, the three organizations that jointly run the count.
First held in 1998, the GBBC was the first online participatory-science project to collect data on wild birds and display results in near real time, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Birds Canada joined the effort in 2009, and the count went global in 2013 when it began entering data into eBird, the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen-science project.
Last year’s count produced observations of 8,078 bird species worldwide, 158 more than were recorded in 2024, according to the GBBC organizers.
“By participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count we can appreciate the beauty and serenity that birds bring us every day,” said Ben Haywood, Audubon’s director of community science, in a statement about this year’s count. “In return, the bird observations we submit can be used to inform conservation efforts that secure a brighter future for birds and people alike.”
Participants at the Descanso Gardens event do not need to bring binoculars or have any experience identifying birds. The free Merlin Bird ID app, developed by the Cornell Lab, can help beginners identify species by sight or sound. Observations can be submitted through the GBBC website, the eBird app, or the Merlin app.
The tour is free with garden admission. General admission to Descanso Gardens is $18 for adults, $14 for seniors 65 and older and students with valid ID, and $8 for children ages 3 to 12. Children 2 and under and garden members enter free. The gardens are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge. For more information, call 818-949-4200 or visit descansogardens.org.
The count runs through Monday, February 16. Participants who cannot attend the Descanso Gardens event can count birds from anywhere — a backyard, a park, or a balcony — and submit their lists at birdcount.org.
