The 2017 Great Backyard Bird Count in February just set new records: it’s the best count ever conducted since the GBBC began in 1998. Here are the stats—as of March 3 — for the worldwide competition, held every year by the Audubon Society and Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology:
- Total species: 5,940 (2016 final total: 5,689)
- Total checklists: 173,826 (2016 final total: 162,052)
- Estimated participants: 214,018 (2016 final total estimate: 163,763)
Number of Species Counted
The undisputed winner for number of species reported is Colombia with a whopping 955, followed by India with 801, and Mexico with 774 species.
Worldwide Performances This Year
The Top 10 Countries ranked by number of checklists submitted with new records marked with an asterisk:
|Country||Number of Species||Number of Checklists|
How Did the States Do ?
|State||Number of Species||Number of Checklists|
Audubon Vice President Gary Langham points out, “ the GBBC is an instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations that can contribute to our understanding of how a changing climate is affecting birds.”