Northern Flicker. Courtesy of Gary Mueller (rights reserved). National Audubon Society

Bird watchers around the world set new records for the 2015 Great Backyard Bird Count — an annual event that invites everyone from families to birding professionals to pitch in and help count. The GBBC is organized by the National Audubon Society, Cornell (University) Ornithology Lab, and Bird Studies Canada. The next GBBC event will be held February 12-16, 2016.

Baltimore Oriole Courtesy of the National Audubon Society

This year the February 13-16 event had an estimated 143,941 participants from more than 100 countries, ranging from Australia and New Zealand to Mexico and the US.

A mind-boggling 5,090 species of birds (including waterfowl) — nearly half of the world’s species –were identified during the four-day count, an increase of 794 from last year. That’s a total of 18.53 million birds counted!

Weather was a major factor in this year’s bird count in the U.S. – record levels of snow on the ground and subfreezing temperatures throughout New England, plus new snowfall over that weekend throughout the Northeast.

Red bellied woodpecker coutesy of Rachel Wood Ohio

Here are the Top 10 countries ranked by number of  species and checklists submitted (as furnished by our friends at the GBBC).

Country  # of Species  # of Checklists

United States 671 species 108,396 checklists

Canada 241 species  10,491 checklists

India 717 species  6,810 checklists

Australia 524 species 812 checklists

Mexico 653  species 425 checklists

Costa Rica 559 species  303 checklists

Portugal 197 species  193 checklists

New Zealand 126 species  161 checklists

Ecuador 784 species 138 checklists

Honduras 353 species  133 checklists

State of the Birds Report 2014

Want to learn more about why it’s important to count birds?

Here’s the Green News Update story on GBBC from 2014 

Want to know how climate change and other factors are putting birds at risk ? Read the Green News Update story from September 2014 on two new bird studies.