Great Backyard Bird Count Friday through Monday

This weekend is for the birds. The annual Great Backyard Bird Count asks people of all ages to get outside from Friday through Monday and spend 15 minutes counting as many different kinds of birds as they can see. Participants are asked to enter their checklist and photos on the group's website, then browse the site to see what others were able to find. There is also a photo contest. (Photo by Raghu Narayan of a flame-back woodpecker in India won fourth place in last year's composition contest)

The event was launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. Last year "participants in 111 countries counted 33,464,616 birds on 137,998 checklists, documenting 4,258 species—more than one-third of the world’s bird species," according to the website. And the event isn't just for fun. It's a valuable tool for scientists and bird enthusiasts to study birds, their behavior, and migration patterns. (Read more)