Bird Monitoring

What's Involved
Monitor Resources

Join the BCN Survey

Help Us Monitor Chicagoland's Breeding Birds

Becoming a BCN Survey monitor is one of the best ways that you can make a valuable contribution to birds in your area.

What's Involved

01.

Set Up Your Points

Monitors should have experience identifying the expected breeding birds at their points by both sight and sound, as well as be able to safely go off-trail through vegetation and over uneven terrain. You will work with a BCN Area Coordinator and may also need to register as a volunteer with one of our partnering land managers. We will help you set up the locations of your monitoring points, enter data in eBird, and get established as a volunteer. If you are monitoring an existing location, your point locations will already be set up for you.

02.

Visit Twice in June

You can contribute your sightings simply by visiting a site at least two times in June and following BCN Survey protocols to count birds there. Some land managers may ask for additional visits, and birders are also encouraged to optionally visit their site(s) during other seasons to track migrant and wintering birds.

03.

Start Close to Sunrise

Monitors are encouraged to start as close to sunrise as possible. During the month of June, sunrise ranges from 5:15 a.m. to 5:19 a.m. Surveys should be completed by 9:00 a.m. at the latest.  Bird activity will drop off considerably after about 7:00 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. on a warm day.

04.

Visit Each of Your Points

Monitoring will be similar to normal birding except you will stand still for five minutes at each point at your site to count all the birds you see and hear within a specific radius of where you are standing. Points are also often located out in the habitat rather than along a trail. The number of points you monitor will vary, but generally range between four and ten points.

05.

Identify Birds Seen and Heard

Monitors record all birds seen or heard within the radius of the point count. Flyover birds should only be counted if they are below treetops and/or using the habitat within the point count circle.

06.

Submit Your Data

Birders familiar with eBird will enter data much like normal except each point is set up as a separate location and other incidental sightings and flyover birds not using the site are recorded separately. Data is also entered through the Bird Conservation Network Project in eBird. Some land managers may have other data entry requirements.

Ready to Become a Monitor?

Contact Us to Learn More About Becoming a BCN Survey Monitor

If you are an experienced birder who can identify our breeding birds by sight and sound, please fill out our Become a Monitor form and we will get in touch with you.

If you are uncertain of your skill level, you can take our self-assessment quiz. Birders who are still learning can attend our training workshops, review our study guides, spend time practicing in the field, and join on trips with a local birding club. All birders are also encouraged to enter their sightings into eBird.

Become a Monitor

Monitoring Resources

Monitoring Protocol
EBird Data Entry

Birding by Ear Training Guides

Both new and experienced birders are invited to brush up on their auditory identification of expected summer birds in our region using these handy guides developed by the BCN team.

Grassland Birds | Shrubland Birds | Woodland Birds | Wetland Birds

BCN Survey Monitor Recruitment Form

BCN Survey Area Coordinators, bird clubs, BCN representatives, partnering land managers, and others are welcome to share and distribute this form for recruiting potential monitors for the BCN Survey.

Monitor Recruitment Form

BCN Survey News

Important Changes to EBird Data Entry

Current BCN Survey monitors, learn about important changes to how to enter your BCN Survey Point Count data in eBird.
May 30, 2024
Read More

History of the BCN Survey

Standardized, Coordinated Bird Monitoring in Chicagoland

BCN coordinated standardized monitoring that was implemented in a 1998 effort that transformed monitoring practices in the Chicagoland region.

The initiative was spearheaded by BCN members Judy Pollock, Alan Anderson, Terry Schilling, Lee Ramsey, and Elizabeth Sanders, with major participation from a group of dedicated birders, scientists, land managers and conservationists including Jerry Garden (Chicago Audubon Society), Jerry Sullivan (Cook County Forest Preserve District), Doug Stotz (Field Museum), Stephen Packard (Audubon - Chicago Region) and Dan Niven (Illinois Natural History Survey).

Prior to 1998, monitoring by citizen scientists had been active in the Chicago region since at least the 1980's, but a lack of standardized protocols and the daunting task of entering reams of data into digitized files meant that much of the information amassed over the past years remained inaccessible and difficult to analyze.

Bobolink

Online publication and quick analysis of our data became a reality in 2001 when Cornell Lab of Ornithology's BirdSource teamed up with BCN and the Field Museum to unveil a new website. This site came about thanks to the efforts of Debby Moskovits and Doug Stotz (Field Museum), Terry Schilling, Lee Ramsey, Alan Anderson and Suzanne Checchia (BCN volunteers), Steve Kelling and Michael Brutvan (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) and Judy Pollock, Rickie White and Steve Frankel (Audubon-Chicago Region).

Joining eBird in 2003, the BCN database moved to a special BCN version of the eBird website, a nationwide site for data entry managed by Cornell Lab of Ornithology & Audubon. This move provided us with easier access to data for research purposes and casual observations, and also allowed BCN monitors to easily enter their sightings at any of the predefined birding hotspots in the Chicagoland area.

BCN Survey Monitoring Committee

Leadership

BCN Survey Co-Chair

Kathryn Gorman

BCN Survey Co-Chair

Tim Balassie

Regional Coordinators

Northern Cook County

Judy Pollock

Southern Cook County

Mike McNamee

DuPage County

Glenn Perricone

Kane County

Tim Balassie

Lake County

Charlotte Pavelka

McHenry County

Jeff Aufmann

Will County

Tim Balassie

All Other Counties

Tim Balassie

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