The Illinois Spring Bird Count (ISBC) is a yearly bird count that consists of volunteers conducting bird censuses in all 102 counties in Illinois. The research derived from this count is important in helping understand the impact of climate change on birds, and changes in bird populations statewide.
Help Count Birds
If you've helped in the past, it would be great/best if you could cover the same areas again. Additional help is needed in the far south and south-central Cook Co. CAS Board member Alan Anderson is compiling the results for Cook County once again this year. Each county has a compiler responsible for recruiting volunteers and assigning them areas to count within their county.
To help, just go birding in Cook County and report your sightings in eBird, and afterwards let Alan know what preserve you helped in and the checklist number (or send Alan the checklist in email after emailing it to yourself). Or use the form on the ISBC home page (PDF): print, fill out and mail to Alan, or save, fill and email an attachment.
Volunteers record all birds seen or heard, along with the number of hours they spend “owling” (pre-dawn hours), the number of hours spent looking for birds during the day, the number of miles driven in a car, and the number of miles walked.
To count in other Illinois counties, contact other county compilers.
Spring Bird Count History
SBC was organized by Chandler Robbins, organizer of the North American Breeding Bird Survey, in 1959. A decade later the Illinois Department of Natural Resources asked Vernon Kleen to organize the first Illinois statewide SBC in the early 1970s. Vern had been mentored by Chandler Robbins and also helped with the first SBC in Maryland, making him a great candidate for taking on such a large task. With the help of the Illinois Audubon Society, the first count was conducted on Saturday, May 6, 1972, and included 650 observers in 62 counties.
Photo: Paul Crook/Unsplash