Deannatoby: You might want to try Project FeederWatch which runs all winter from November through early April. Submitting reports each week forces you to pay attention to bird identification, and you can email photos to the friendly PFW people and they're happy to help identify them. I learned a lot from these people and from the pile of guides I've collected. Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds site is a great resource too. Several members of this forum are PFW participants - it adds another layer of interest to your yard. After a while the little brown birds begin to look different and there's always blue jays and cardinals and turkeys to start with. Claire

The count is continuing - this is the status as of about 6:15 PM Sunday, with one day to go. Black dots are checklists submitted worldwide. Yellow dots are new submissions as they're recorded. You can access the data from any checklist submitted globally; be it from your own state or some faraway country. Claire

When we were living at mom's house out in Jefferson county, I would feed white proso millet. I think I have counted about 6 house sparrows over there since she started feeding birds in 2012. The native sparrows love the proso millet and we would have song sparrows, white crowned sparrows, towhees, gobs of juncos, and even a harris sparrow one time all of them devouring that seed. When I moved to Phoenix the first thing I did was hang an oriole feeder from the mesquite tree that hung over the wall around my yard. I didn't have an actual hummingbird feeder at the time but had brought the oriole one with me from Denver. The hummers didn't mind and I had some wonderful Anna's HB's come to visit almost immediately. The pair of Gila woodpeckers that lived nearby also absolutely loved it. A few months later I came home from work one day and the entire thing was completely fillef with "candied" bees! They had made their way into the sugary water but couldn't get out and had drowned! I really wasn't interested in attracting bees (honeybees I personally consider an invasive species, and it is also assumed that all feral honeybees in southern Arizona are the Africanized version). So, I went out and bought an actual hummingbird feeder, which has smaller openings, and packed away the oriole one. The woodpeckers were mad at me for a bit but were assuaged by the suet (NO MELT recipe of course!) I put up for them. In addition to the bees that ruined my chances of ever attracting hooded and Scott's orioles, the neighborhood I was in had hoards of collared pigeons and house sparrows. So when I first started feeding birds other than the nectar sipping kind, I knew that the millet was a no-no. I decided to go with just a nyjer/thistle feeder and got house finches and the seed that dropped on the ground was enjoyed by the overwintering white crowned sparrows. Eventually I decided to try my luck and put out a feeder of black sunflower seeds. As I had expected, the collared pigeons showed up in droves, but I also had Inca doves so that was pretty neat. However, contrary to your observations Skybird, it didn't take long for the house sparrows to find the sunflower seed either and soon I had scores of them gobbling it up, too. At some point I decided that in an effort to mitigate the pigeon problem (I counted close to 80 in my tiny yard one day) that I would only infrequently fill the sunflower seed feeder. When we found ourselves in Platteville last fall I knew we had house sparrows. So, when I dug out my bird feeders, the first thing I put up was the big nyjer feeder I had in Phoenix. It attracts tons of American goldfinches (I have counted close to 50 at any given time). But then I was noticing the big flocks of white crowned and tree sparrows so I decided that I was going to have to take the "bad with the good" if I was going to feed birds and just accept that house sparrows are just an unfortunate fact of life in this game. Sure enough the house sparrows showed up the second I put out the black sunflower seeds. So far the blackbirds, of which we have hundreds thanks to extensive cattail stands found along the slough and the ponds, have stayed away from the feeders, though they perchin the tree they were hanging from. I have yet to see a single squirrel. The biggest problem is the mice. Despite our barn cat Claudia's best efforts, they are certainly around and we found evidence of them stashing seeds from the feeders. I REALLY do not want mice in the house our under the hoods of our cars to chew up the wires. I would much rather have flying house rats than actual rats. As for mess clean up, the constant wind that comes "sweeping down the plains" takes care of that and we don't have any lawn around the house anyhow. But regardless, due to the rodent issue, the feeders got moved out in a field about 100 yards from the house today. Hopefully the birds find them soon. I am also hoping some of the guys who don't come up close to the house, like meadow larks and horned larks, might stop by with them way out there. I'll have to see if they eat seeds... No glowing on my part, at least yet. I suspect that the carcinogens caused by the ever growing number of cars, fracking, and all the other gross stuff that is associated with the exponential development that is going on around here is far worse for a person's health than going for a hike out at Rocky Flats. I think a June field trip with you guys out there would be a tremendous idea! I know I am kind of a flake when it comes to this stuff, but I really would like to try to make it happen! Solitude is a thing that is growing ever harder to find. Even out here we have constant traffic on the road in front of the house. People going between Denver and Greeley and all the God forsaken fracking traffic. I remember as a kid, even Brighton was like heading out to the middle of nowhere. Loveland, Greeley, and Ft. Collins felt as distant as the far side of the moon. Now Cheyenne is almost part of the Front Range metro area. Every time I see another corn field around here with a piece of heavy equipment parked in it my heart sinks. More and more I regret not taking the jobs I was offered a few years ago at wildlife refuges in northwestern Nebraska... I actually tend to avoid National Parks because they are just so over crowded it ruins the whole expierince for me. To me, the greatest treasure isn't unique geology, history, or wildlife. Its being away from people. Organ Pipe was spectacular in that respect. I could drive the entire western loop of the monument and, except for the road and a few abandoned ranches, not even see evidence of other human beings. As you have found with Capitol Reef and Natural Bridges, in a lot of places the desert seems to be one landscape that is yet to be completely innundated by mankind. Even many of the local and state parks around Phoenix, which is the fifth largest city in the country and has three times as many people as Denver, I could spend all day and count on less than both hands the number of people I had to share the space with. Heres hoping your bushtits and yellow flicker showed up today, or will soon! I didn't get a count in since by the time we were done with errands the weather turn a turn for the nasty. If it holds out a little bit for us tomorrow though, I'm definitely going to try!

Wrapping Up the Amazing 2020 GBBC Wow, Just Wow! The 2020 Great Backyard Bird Count exceeded all expectations and set the bar even higher when it comes to public participation in worldwide citizen-science events! This year's count smashed previous records for number of participants, checklists, and species reported. More than a quarter-of-a-million people were counting birds over the four days of the GBBC this year! Species: 6,942 Checklists: 249,444 Estimated Participants: 268,674 Our top-10 list for species appearing on the greatest number of checklists shows the Northern Cardinal once again in the top spot. Changes compared to year: White-breasted Nuthatch got knocked out of the tenth spot, replaced by the Red-bellied Woodpecker--a species that has been expanding its range in recent years. House Sparrow and American Crow swapped places, with the sparrow moving up two notches. All other species are in the same position as during the last GBBC. SpeciesNumber of Checklists The top-10 list above reflects species common in the United States and Canada because of continued high participation in the region. Record-breaking participation from other countries generated valuable data documenting the diversity of species across the globe. See the top-10 list below of countries reporting the greatest number of species--always a hotly-contested race in bird-rich Central and South America. Peru and Mexico swapped places but otherwise the list remains unchanged compared to last year, although in nearly every case, these countries set new species records. U.S. participants reported slightly fewer species than last year. (Asterisks indicate a new species record for the GBBC.) CountryNumber of Species See which countries, provinces, and states made the top 10 in other categories and read our full 2020 GBBC summary report.