Four mourning doves expect to be counted (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

10 February 2026

Doing anything special for Presidents Days weekend? Staying at home? Taking a walk? Going to somewhere warm? No matter where you go you’ll have four days of great excuses to go birding.

This year’s Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) runs Friday the 13th through Monday the 16th of February 2026.

It’s easy to participate, as you can see in this video from Grant Rettig.

Count birds at your feeders or anywhere outdoors and anywhere on Earth. The Great Backyard Bird Count is global.

Spend time in your favorite places watching birds—then tell us about them! In as little as 15 minutes notice the birds around you. Identify them, count them, and submit your counts to help scientists better understand and protect birds around the world. If you already use eBird or Merlin, you don’t have to do anything special. Your submissions over the 4 days count toward GBBC.

Here’s what we all saw in 2024. (Someone saw a sunbittern.) Let’s go, 2026!

(video embedded from Cornell Lab on YouTube)