The Triangle Bird Count (TBC) is a citizen science project to help monitor the abundance and diversity of bird species in urban habitats modeled after several other Urban Bird Counts already being conducted in North America. The bird count is expected to take place in March 2018.
The TBC is a new project from NC State University’s Reconciliation Ecology Lab, dedicated to mapping the distribution and abundance of bird species in and around the cities of North Carolina’s “Research Triangle”: Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding municipalities.
Volunteers will spend one morning (or more), of their choice, mid-Mar – mid-May 2018 (exact dates to be determined) counting birds at fixed locations using a standard protocol. Ideally, they would input their data directly into an online database.
TBC data will be publicly available to local communities to help build a better understanding of nature and biodiversity right where we live and work, and to inform land use and urban planning. By monitoring the changes of diversity and abundance over time we can gain a better understanding of the ecology of our local bird populations and urban nature more broadly.
Insights generated from these data can also help improve decision-making regarding local land use and urban development. All results, including interactive distribution maps, will be freely available via our online data portal to be launched in Spring 2018.