[Birdtalk] Counting Birds

[Jim & Beanie]

How do you count birds?  

There is quite a gathering of feathered friends here today.

Just try to count them.  Eight species, and constantly on the move, 
from the bush to the trees to the orchard to the feeders, on the ground under the feeders.  

What a joke,  at the very best I can do a guestimate and come up with :

42 Juncos
55 English Sparrows
7 Magpies
23 Starlings
4 Goldfinches
2 Flickers
57 House finches
4 Red-winged Blackbird

Like I said this is a real guess.   Yet I see bird counts all the time in the thousands and to the bird.  Such as 10,247 swans.    

Someone knows how to count birds better than me.  Can someone enlighten me?

Do we just assume all counts are an estimate?

Or do you count birds like the Fish and Game Department  counts deer?  If you see one you assume that there are five in hiding and add six to the count. 

:)

Have a nice day.

Jim 
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