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Overview
About Birds
Important Bird Areas
Bird Conservation
Bird Distribution
Birds of Montana Book Project
Citizen Science
Resources

montana audubon - citizen science

You don't need to be a professional biologist to contribute to sound science and have a great time doing it.  Consider joining one of the following citizen efforts and provide invaluable information of the birds of Montana and beyond. 

• Christmas Bird Count
• Backyard FeederWatch - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Flammulated Owls - Avian Science Center
• Glacier National Park- Loons, Nutcrackers, Pikas

If you know of additional citizen science projects in your community, contact Program Director Janet Ellis, and she will add a link! 

Christmas Bird Count

The Christmas Bird Count is a long-standing program of Audubon, including in Montana. It is an early-winter bird census, where volunteers count every bird they see or hear during one day in a designated 15-mile diameter circle. Last year in Montana, almost 560 volunteers participated in 30 Christmas Bird Counts statewide (see map below). These individuals recorded a total of 152 species of birds, and 154,291 individual birds. Please think about joining one of this year’s CBCs, which will be conducted sometime between December 14, 2008 and January 5, 2009. If you don’t know who to call to find out about a local CBC, call the Montana Audubon office, and we will put you in touch with the right person.

Montana Christmas Bird Count Facts:

• Oldest annual count: Bozeman has conducted a CBC every year since 1950
• Youngest count: Grant-Kohrs (Deer Lodge area) started in 2007.
• Most common birds last year: Canada Geese (30,635 birds), Mallards (20,080 birds), and Bohemian Waxwings (12,005 birds).
• Count with most species seen: 85 species were seen on the Stevensville count.
• Count with least species seen: only 15 species were seen on the Little Rocky Mountain count.
• Bird species seen in every count last year: Bald Eagles (Black-capped Chickadees were seen in all but 1 count and Black-Billed Magpies were seen in all but 2 counts).

To locate the Christmas Bird Count nearest you, see the map below.

For details of the 2008-2009 CBC and contact information of the count leaders, click HERE.

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Glacier National Park

According to a April 10, 2008 Missoulian article:

Wanted:  Citizen Scientists

Get up from that chair and out of that cubicle, because Glacier National Park needs volunteer “citizen scientists” to help conduct field work this summer.

An ongoing project will track loons across Glacier’s million-acre wilderness, while another group takes to alpine heights to follow the lives of mountain goats, pikas and Clark’s nutcrackers. A third project is mapping invasive plants throughout the park’s backcountry.

To join either the loon or weed work, call Billie Thomas at (406) 888-5827. To get in on the goat, pika and nutcracker project, call Jami Belt at 888-7986.

Training will be provided to all volunteers, and the strenuousness of any given assignment will be tailored to individual abilities. All are welcome.

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