Just realized I've identified 47 different bird species in my yard this year

I started keeping a simple notebook back in January after I saw a bird I couldn't name. I just wanted to track what was coming to my feeders and birdbath. Well I hit 47 species last weekend when a pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks showed up. That number surprised me because I only have a small lot in a suburban neighborhood. It made me realize that even a modest backyard can attract a lot of variety if you keep the habitat right. I started adding a little water feature and some native bushes last spring and I think that helped a lot. Has anyone else been surprised by how many different birds turn up in their yard?

2 comments

2 Comments

brookethomas15d ago

oh man the flyover thing cracks me up because I swear I had a crow spotting that literally just flew over my house on its way to the neighbor's yard and I still wrote it down because I was desperate to hit 50. its like when you're counting steps and you walk to the kitchen for water and count it as exercise. but honestly I think the grosbeak thing is the real win here, I got a pair of those last spring and they brought like four babies to my feeder for weeks and it was the cutest thing ever. my neighbor has this massive old oak tree and she gets way more variety than me just from that one tree, so I've been trying to plant a couple oaks of my own even though they take forever to grow. I feel like the water feature is probably doing more work than we give it credit for though, I put in one of those little recirculating rock things and suddenly I'm getting finches and sparrows multiple times a day where before I only got cardinals and blue jays.

joseph45515d ago

47 is a good number but I've hit 52 in my yard and honestly I think some of those are just passing through without really using the habitat... seems like people count flyovers and random stopovers that don't really mean the yard itself is doing much.