You don't need any special training to contribute to real bird science. Every checklist, photo, or count you submit becomes part of a dataset researchers actually use to track how birds are doing, and there are several easy on-ramps depending on how much time you want to spend and what kind of tracking interests you.

eBird is the platform behind most modern bird community science, including the Great Backyard Bird Count and the California Bird Atlas, but you don't need to be working on a specific project to use it. Every birder can create a free account and start logging checklists any time, anywhere, and that data builds a permanent personal record while also feeding directly into global bird research.

Download the free eBird Mobile app, create an account, and start a checklist whenever you're out watching birds, even for five minutes in your own yard. Enter what you saw or heard, and eBird timestamps and locates it automatically.

Over time, your checklists build your own "life list" while contributing to one of the largest biodiversity databases in the world. If you'd like a gentler starting point before diving into full checklists, the Merlin Bird ID app (from the same team at Cornell) is built specifically for identifying birds by photo or sound and is a great first step before graduating to eBird.

iNaturalist is a different kind of community science app, and a good complement to eBird rather than a replacement. Where eBird is bird-specific, iNaturalist covers all wildlife: birds, insects, plants, fungi, reptiles, anything you photograph outdoors. Point your phone at what you've found, and the app's image recognition suggests an identification, which the iNaturalist community then helps verify.

Researchers regularly pull iNaturalist and eBird observations directly into published studies, and the more local the data, the more useful it becomes. A good nearby example: Southern California's naturalized parrot populations, thought to have started from escaped or released pet-trade birds decades ago, are now being studied by researchers with the Moore Lab's Free-Flying Los Angeles Parrot Project, who use iNaturalist photos alongside eBird records to map where different parrot species are established, what they're eating, and whether species are hybridizing. Every geotagged photo someone snaps of a parrot flock in Pasadena or the Santa Monica Mountains becomes a data point in that research.

The same logic applies here in the Conejo Valley, where Nanday Parakeets, Red-crowned Amazons, and Lilac-crowned Amazons all show up locally. A photo you post from your own backyard or a local trail becomes part of the permanent scientific record for that species, at that place, on that date, something no researcher could collect at that scale on their own.

This makes iNaturalist a great fit for a Conejo Valley backyard or trail walk where birds are only part of what you're noticing. It's also a good option for kids and beginners, since the photo-first, AI-assisted format lowers the bar even further than learning bird calls or checklist conventions.

Celebrate Urban Birds is built specifically for beginners and city or suburban settings, which makes it one of the gentlest possible starting points. Participants watch a small area (as little as a 10-minute observation of a specific patch of ground) for a short list of easy-to-recognize focal species, and report what they see, even if that's nothing at all. Absence data matters just as much as sightings for this kind of project.

It's a good option if checklists and account-based apps feel like more than you want to deal with, or if you're looking for something simple enough to do with a young child or a first-time participant.

Two bigger, more structured community science projects are also worth knowing about if you want to go deeper than a one-time count.

California Bird Atlas

The California Bird Atlas (CBA) is a five-year statewide effort (2026–2030) documenting breeding bird behavior through eBird, the kind of long-term project California has never had before.

CBA Breeding codes

Watch our webinar about the California Bird Atlas

Project Phoenix

Project Phoenix, led by UCLA researchers, tracks how wildfire smoke affects bird behavior across California, Oregon, and Washington, with a light weekly commitment of about 10 minutes.

Project FeederWatch is a step up in structure from the free options above. It's a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada, running every year from November through April, where participants count the birds at a feeder or watch site on a schedule of their choosing (as little as two days a season, or every week all winter) and submit those counts online.

Unlike the other projects on this page, FeederWatch has an annual participation fee, since the project is funded almost entirely by participants rather than grants. In exchange, you get a bird identification poster, an annual "Winter Bird Highlights" report on what the data found, and tools on the FeederWatch site to see how your own yard's bird activity compares over time. 

It's a good option for someone who wants a more structured, season-long commitment (and a nice paper keepsake at the end of it) rather than a one-time count. You don't even need a feeder to participate, just a spot you can reliably watch.

It's a good option if checklists and account-based apps feel like more than you want to deal with, or if you're looking for something simple enough to do with a young child or a first-time participant.

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a four-day global event held annually every February, where anyone, anywhere, spends at least 15 minutes watching and counting birds. It's a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada, and it's designed to be the easiest possible entry point: no registration, no experience required, and no minimum commitment beyond that first 15 minutes.

How to participate

Pick any spot, your backyard, a local park, a CVAS walk, and watch for at least 15 minutes on one or more of the four days. If you're new to bird identification, the Merlin Bird ID app will help you name what you're seeing or hearing, and simply saving an ID in Merlin during the count counts as participating. If you're already comfortable with eBird, submitting a checklist during the four days automatically counts toward the GBBC too.

Unlike the other projects on this page, FeederWatch has an annual participation fee, since the project is funded almost entirely by participants rather than grants. In exchange, you get a bird identification poster, an annual "Winter Bird Highlights" report on what the data found, and tools on the FeederWatch site to see how your own yard's bird activity compares over time. 

It's a good option for someone who wants a more structured, season-long commitment (and a nice paper keepsake at the end of it) rather than a one-time count. You don't even need a feeder to participate, just a spot you can reliably watch.

It's a good option if checklists and account-based apps feel like more than you want to deal with, or if you're looking for something simple enough to do with a young child or a first-time participant.

CVAS participates in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) every year, one of the longest-running community science projects in the world. Beginners are teamed up with experienced birders, so no prior identification skill is needed to join. 

See our Christmas Bird Count page for details on this year's count and how to sign up.

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• Great Backyard Bird Count 
• Audubon Christmas Bird Count 
• Cornell’s Celebrate Urban Birds 
• California Bird Atlas
• Project Phoenix 
• Project FeederWatch
• Frequently Asked Questions