Participating in Backyard Bird Quest 2020 is easy and fun. Just follow the six steps below.
Step One: Choose your Team and Location
You can go solo or form a family team! Count in your backyard or neighborhood, but please keep safe social distancing in mind at all times.
Step Two: Recruit Sponsors
Call or email your relatives, friends, or neighbors and ask them to support you by pledging a set dollar amount or an amount per species counted. Download this form to help you track your sponsors.
Step Three: Get out and Count
Choose a 24 hour period during the month of May and head out to count every bird species (or if you like, all flora and fauna) you can find. You can even add each site where you count to Vermont eBird or Vermont Atlas of Life at iNaturalist. You can download a checklist of the birds of Vermont from the Vermont Bird Records Committee or visit the Vermont eBird bar chart page to learn what might be found near you. You can also try this easy to use checklist.
Step Four: Collect Sponsor Pledges
Report to your sponsors with your count and collect their pledges. Checks should be made out to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.
Step Five: Return your Count and Pledges
After you have done your count and collected all of your pledges, send the Participation Form, Sponsor Forms and Collected Contributions to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, PO Box 420, Norwich, VT 05055
Step Six: Vermont eBird
Enter your bird checklists from each stop into Vermont eBird or upload your observations to Vermont Atlas of Life at iNaturalist.
