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Can bird clubs help save democracy? History says yes! This award-winning documentary explores how clubs—including
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Southshore Bird Club Birders conducting a winter bird count.
Collecting and sharing data is an important way for individuals and communities to contribute to research, and influence urban planning, public policy, and legislation. Through community science, volunteer monitoring, participatory science, crowdsourcing, and public participation in scientific research anyone can support efforts to promote and achieve progress in protecting biodiversity and environmental justice.
Stanford University’s Our Voice initiative activates the power of people as change agents to build healthier and more vibrant communities. While Our Voice focuses on human health, how they engage community participation in science is not unlike community participation in environmental and conservation data collection.
A key point this group emphasizes is that “Every person has valuable lived experiences that can inform research, educate others, and drive meaningful change. These lived experiences can include insights from daily activities.”
That diversity of perspectives is incredibly valuable and can lead to extraordinary discoveries.
Even government agencies rely on community science. The EPA, for example, uses participatory science to monitor environmental conditions around the country. “Participatory science uses the collective strength of communities and the public to identify research questions, collect and analyze data, interpret results, make discoveries, and develop technologies and applications to understand and solve problems,” the EPA has written. They also list a variety of projects people can join.
Birding, from its earliest days, has been energized by the observations of ordinary people. Amateur records of birds, locations, days, and other details have been recorded, remixed, and shared with others for centuries to create a picture of biodiversity and environmental change. Today’s Ebirders and iNaturalists, band reporters, and hawk watchers are adding new records to massive databases that allow researchers to study patterns in remarkable detail. Want to do something to protect birds? Start counting in a neighborhood where the data is less detailed.
The longest-running participatory science project is National Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count. The first count took place on Christmas day in 1900 and now includes approximately 80,000 people counting birds. This count focuses on wintering sites and migration stopovers and provides useful snapshots of bird populations that are harder for researchers to acquire than spring counts.
In small and large ways, the impact of sharing data collected by ordinary people who enjoy exploring the environment has been enormous.
Unfortunately, a lack of data has also been a factor in actions that contribute to environmental racism. (see resources for examples).
Research is expensive—especially research that concerns human health and the environment. Scientists and institutions tend to be cautious when choosing large complex projects because they want their work to have an impact. When good data is available, it makes it easier for researchers to develop projects that can provide better answers.
“There’s no ecosystem, however urbanized, that cannot benefit from more data,” says US conservationist, explorer, and founder of non-profit organization Adventure Scientists, Gregg Treinish.
In addition to the well-known bird-related databases listed here, we’ve compiled additional resources and projects to inspire your inner scientist.
The Christmas Bird Count starts on December 14 and runs to January 5 every season. Sign up to receive information and results about all of National Audubon’s community science programs through American Birds, our email newsletter.
In addition to eBird, Cornell Labs runs several important counts including the International Shorebird Survey, Project Feeder Watch, Global Big Day, North American Breeding Bird Survey, Nest Watch, the Backyard Bird Count, and others, Find your way to get involved.
eBird is among the world’s largest biodiversity-related science projects, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually by eBirders around the world and an average participation growth rate of approximately 20% year over year. eBird data document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected within a simple, scientific framework.
eBird is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you while generating data for science and conservation. By recording and sharing your observations, you’ll create research-quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature.
A website dedicated to sharing wildlife sounds from all over the world. The site is used by researchers, birders, and the simply curious. Share your recording. learn from the recordings of others, design a research project whether for a science fair or dissertation, and help identify mystery recordings. This dataset helped researchers track down changes in the songs of White-throated Sparrows, leading studies on how birds learn and share songs. [LINK]
Community Healthbook
Environmental health warrior Erin Brokovich’s current project collects individual health stories to help researchers identify and locate disease clusters and connect that data with environmental conditions.
Community Snow Observations
This project aims to improve our understanding of snow depth variability in mountainous regions. We need community-based observers, including backcountry professionals and the recreational community, to help gather snow observations.
EarthEcho Water Challenge
A program of EarthEcho International that runs annually from March 22 (the UN World Water Day) through December and equips anyone to protect the water resources we depend on every day.
Globe at Night
Globe at Night is an international scientific research program that crowdsources measurements of light pollution in the night sky. The coordinating researchers compile the data to produce a public, freely available map of global light pollution.
Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project
The Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project engages NOAA partners and volunteers around the world to survey and record the amount and types of marine debris on shorelines.
SafeCast
Safecast teaches communities to collect and report data on airborne particulates, radiation iand other environmental hazards in their neighborhoods.
SciStarter
SciStarter helps bring together millions of curious and concerned people to engage in real-world research questions in collaboration with researchers, communities, organizations, and companies.
National Phenology Network
Phenology is nature’s calendar—when cherry trees bloom, when a robin builds its nest and when leaves turn color in the fall. Learn why phenology is vital to many aspects of ecology and society. Phenology is also a leading indicator of climate change. Share your observations.
North American Butterfly Association
The North American Butterfly Association has run the Butterfly Count Program since 1993. Each of the 450 annual counts consists of a compilation of all butterflies observed at sites within a 15-mile diameter count circle in a one-day period.
US citizenscience.gov
This database provides a government-wide listing of citizen science and crowdsourcing projects designed by federal agencies, including NASA and the EPA.
Xerces Society
The Xerces Society supports a range of important projects focusing on pollinators and invertebrates, including the Bumble Bee Atlas.
Zooniverse
The Zooniverse enables anyone with computer access to take part in research across the sciences. Have a spare 10 minutes? Count penguins, identify solar jets, identify mammals in the Everglades—there are many projects to choose from.
The Power of Citizen Science, Stanford Report, June 13th, 2024
The Demographics of Citizen Science Participation and Its Implications for Data Quality and Environmental Justice, by Charlie Blake, Allison Rhanor, Cody Pajic at The Citizen Science Association
Take a Second Look: 25 Years and Counting, Maury Hall and Soheil Zendeh
Citizen science’s transformative impact on science, citizen empowerment and socio-political processes, von Gönner, J., Herrmann, T.M., Bruckermann, T. et al. Citizen Socio Ecol Pract Res 5, 11–33 (2023).
Mobilizing Black Environmentalism and Data Justice, Faithe J. Day, National Center for Institutional Diversity, 2022
Attributes & Outcomes of Community Science, The Community Science Initiative
Citizen Science and Crowdsourced Data Can Improve Environmental Data in the United States, Center for Data Innovation
Citizen science in environmental and ecological sciences Nat Rev Methods Primers 2022
Inclusion in citizen science: The conundrum of rebranding, Science, Caren B. Cooper et al. Science, 2021
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