in a time of bird decline, counting and feeding them, with emma greig of feederwatch

RESEARCH ON BIRD POPULATIONS published in fall of 2019 was alarming: 29 percent of all birds in the U.S. and Canada have vanished since 1970, a drop of 2.9 billion birds in our lifetime. In light of such news, Cornell Lab of Ornithology says it’s more vital than ever that citizen scientists—like all of us gardeners—monitor their own backyard birds and share their sightings.

Today’s guest, the leader of Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch, will tell us more about changing bird populations–including not just rare birds but among some of our most familiar backyard species, like blue jays and juncos–and also about how data from birdwatchers helps, plus best practices for feeding birds this winter and more.

Emma Grieg is the leader of Project FeederWatch at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, which for more than 30 years has fostered connections between people and birds, and also between birdwatchers and scientists, who benefit from all those extra sets of eyes to help them get a closer look at bird population changes over time. That’s Emma below, on the job during a research project in Australia, hawk in hand.

counting, and feeding, birds; a q&a with emma greig

Margaret Roach: Hi, Emma. I’ve been participating for such a long time, so you don’t have to convince me[laughter], but, yes, I love FeederWatch and other such citizen-scientist opportunities. As I said in the intro, Emma, even experts in the field of ornithology and conservation were shocked by the recent numbers about bird decline when that report was published in the journal “Science” in September, right?

Emma Greig: Yes, I think it was a surprise to all of us. Even though I think in the back of a lot of our minds we knew that lots of species

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