Americans are between bird counts, but this weekend the Brits worked on their big event, the Big Garden Birdwatch.  The bird counts are now spreading around the world–just in time to help capture how climate change is shifting birds’ ranges and migration patterns.

Once written off as somewhat silly and “wobbly” data, citizen scientist data is are now being taken more seriously says Audubon’s Geoff LeBaron, who runs the Christmas Bird Count, which was started by Audubon a century ago as an alternative to going bird hunting on the holiday.

“We could never afford to pay people to do that,” LeBaron says. Now known by the trendy name crowd-sourcing, this data is free and vast. But wait, that’s not all. The bonus is that it helps promote and prioritize conservation and creates bird advocates.

All of the surveys work differently and target different audiences. In terms of sheer data, the biggest is probably Christmas Bird Count: in the 109th count last year 59,000 birders tallied 66 million birds. But it’s a long, cold day in the field and no place for kids.

That’s where lighter events come in, like the Big Garden Birdwatch or the American Great Backyard Bird Count,  which starts here February 12. They’re kind of a gateway drug that birders hope get students and dilettantes hooked. From the comfort of their homes, half a million Brits count for just an hour. Americans have to stay focused for just 15 minutes. (And if that’s not convenient enough,

Keep reading Citizen Bird Counts Going Global — Just as Warming Shifts Migrations