Why do we want to count birds in our gardens?
To help scientists understand why and when birds visit gardens and other green areas in towns and cities of Catalonia. Do migratory birds arrive earlier when spring comes before schedule? Do seed eaters visit gardens more often when natural food is scarce in cold winters? How does urban sprawl affect the capacity of birds to live in the city? What role do gardens have in small villages and in rural areas? These and much more questions will have answers thanks to your collaboration!
How to participate in Ocells dels Jardins?
1) Register. The first time you visit ocellsdelsjardins.cat, you have to click "Taking part" and fill in the inscription form. When you are finished, you will receive a password via email. You will be able to change as needed from the section "Email and password" in the menu "My account".
2) Add a garden. It must be a delimited space: your garden, your orchard, part of a big public park, your balcony. You will have to locate it with precision on the map and name it with a name you choose. Then you will need to fill in the form describing its features: surface, habitat, use of chemicals, etc. You can create as many gardens as you want (from "Taking part, Add a garden) and review or modify its features afterwards (from "Taking part, My gardens).
3) Count birds. You just have to report the maximum number of individuals of each species you have detected in your garden during a defined time interval. You can count every day, once a month or from time to time. However, we encourage you to count in two particular moments of the year: on the last weekend of January (winter period) and on the last weekend of May (breeding period). You will find all the details on how to do the counts below.
4) Input your sightings. You just need to select your garden, date and time interval (start time and end time) and the maximum number of individuals that you have seen of each species (Click "Enter my observations"). You can either type the number in the box or click on the picture of the bird (every click increases the counter by one). When you are done, click on "Add" to save them. It is important to count only those birds that use the garden (for example, to forage, shelter or breed). Don't count flying birds that don't stop in the garden and don't use it in any way.
How do I record sightings?
When should I count? Whenever you want! Every day, once a month or even from time to time. The project runs year-round. However, there are two dates that we encourage participants to join forces: the last weekend of January (winter period) and the last weekend of May (breeding periods). You can participate counting only during these two special dates but it would be great if you can't count once a week in one of your gardens, for as many weeks as you can. The more countings you do, the more and better information we will get.
What do I have to count?You have to register only those birds that are effectively using your garden, not those that fly by or are in your neighbour's garden. For example, swallows should only be counted if they are breeding in the garden, drink water in the pool or forage in the garden itself.
How do I have to count?Record the maximum number of different individuals of all species that you have detected during the time interval in which you have been recording in the garden. It is vital to record all bird species, not only some of them or those that you think are most interesting. Be careful not to count the same individual several times if it has been moving around. To have the full list of birds observed allows us to know with precision what species use each type of garden, whilst knowing the time interval gives us an estimation of observation effort.
How do I record my sightings?Write down your sightings on the Field Form of the project. The form shows three well defined groups. First, that of the 20 most common species in our gardens, second, that of 32 frequent species but less abundant or of restricted distribution and last, six species of other groups so that you start to get aware of the other non-feathered inhabitants of your garden (two mammals, Red Squirrel and West European Hedgehog; a reptile, the Common Wall Gecko; two amphibians, Perez's Frog and Midwife Toad and a butterfly, the Red Admiral). If you have identified a bird that is not found in the predefined groups, there is a space in the form for them. When entering them online, you must first introduce the predefined species and, when sent, click on "add a species" in the top right corner of the form.
Other useful information
Do you want to publish images or sounds associated to a sighting?You can do it by modifying the corresponding observation (by clicking on the small pencil-like icon beside the observation). A window will pop up from which you will be able to load one or more pictures and sound files; you can also change here the number of individuals (in case of error) or add details on the age and sex of the birds recorded. Published photos are available in "Galleries".
Do you want to delete a sighting?Click on the Tray icon beside the sighting and follow the instructions.
Do you want more information about a species?
Click on the "i" just after the species name or go to "Species Cards".
Field Form
You can download here the Field Form of the project and print it to have it at hand when recording your sightings. We suggest writing with pencil so that you can re-use it after you have entered your data into the system.
Sightings
Stats