Garden Birds

Have a look on the presentation video:

The protocol:

1. Choose your observation zone. The observation must be done in a clearly delimited area, within which you are sure to see, and therefore recognize, all the birds. This could be part of your establishment’s courtyard or terrace, a town square or a well-defined area of a public park. In winter, you can also install bird feeders to make it easier to observe the birds.

2. Identify and count the birds for a 15-minute period. Firstly, record the date of your survey and the start and end time of the observation period, knowing that you must observe the birds for 15 minutes. During this time, note the maximum number of birds for each species observed for the period.

3. Repeat your observations as often as possible. This observatory operates all year round, you can try to monitor the bird populations in your establishment by counting them daily, once a month, or even sporadically! By repeating your counts, you can, for example, assess the impact of the seasons on the birds. Finally, you should know that the more you participate, the more useful your information will be to our researchers!

Let’s begin by having a look on these documents: 

• The participant's kit which provides all the tools you will need to be part of this journey, such as the (printable!) identification key,  
• The observatory's poster (fichier volumineux, le chargement peut être long)
• A poster designed by the LPO

• A video tutorial to make the identification phase easier. 

When to participate? 

You can observe the birds and send us your data throughout the year. In winter, observation will be easier if you put out a bird feeder.

What should I do before? 

Prepare your pupils! During class sessions, train them in using the identification key properly - why not with the help of pictures. You can also use the different quizzes available on our website. Outside, birds move really fast. We advise you to ask your pupils to keep a ‘mental picture’ of the bird before using the identification key (size? color? any distinctive features?).

Materials you’ll need (by group of 3-4 pupils)

Per class:

• Feeders with seeds or fat balls (optional).

Per group of 3-4 pupils:

• The participant’s kit, 
• A camera (optional),
• Binoculars (optional).

A few precisions

Why bird-watch for 15 minutes?
The protocol asks that you observe the birds over a 15-minute period so that comparisons can be made using the data collected (if the observation time is not the same, the data are difficult to compare). 15 minutes is a reasonable length of time for students while giving researchers a good overview of bird diversity.

Which birds should be counted?
Count only the birds in the courtyard (or park, garden etc.) and not those flying over it! But.... There are exceptions to this rule. For instance, you can count insectivores (swallows or swifts, for example) and birds of prey (European sparrowhawk...) that are hunting over your observation site. Finally, if you observe a species that is not listed on the field sheet, you can take it into account and report it in the "Notes" section.

What does it mean to "count the maximum number of individuals"?
During your observations, record the maximum number of individuals of each species observed during the same period. For example, if you count 5 blue tits, then 7, then 4 again, you will only note 7 and not 16 (5+7+4) because you have seen a maximum of 7 blue tits at the same time and some may have come twice.

Few information about species’ determination

In France, there are more than 500 species of birds. Some of them are really common and frequent, others are more rare. This protocol aims to focus on 52 species only, actually the most likely to be found next to dwellings. The participant’s kit provides an identification key that will help you and your pupils to recognize and name the different species. 

Sending your observations

It will take only a few minutes! Log in and enter your data on vigienature-ecole.fr. Please, let us know if you did not see any individuals: this is important information for our researchers! Do not forget to provide some context, such as the type of environment (urban, rural?) or the installation of feeders. All these data are likely to explain the birds’ distribution over time and space (observation area). This step, yet mandatory, will be asked only once for each area. Please find here all the information you will need to collect prior to the class session. 
 

You may find that questions and hypotheses concerning the distribution of living beings arise from your observations (are there as many birds in the city as there are in the countryside? Does the use of pesticides have consequences on snails, etc.). The data positioning tools included in the participation report, which is sent at the end of the school year to all who are registered on the website, provides answers to some of these questions. The graphics included in the report position the observations made in a given establishment in relation to the data collected as a whole. For example, you will learn whether observing 4 species of snails in an establishment is a sign of healthy or poor biodiversity. Explanations are provided to help you interpret the results. These documents encourage your pupils to consider which actions could be taken to promote biodiversity in the courtyard or playground (installation of feeders, setting aside plots of land, etc.). By repeating the observations, you will be able to monitor the impact of these actions over time.

You can also process the data you’ve collected in other ways. For example, you can create graphics representing the species present in different areas of the establishment. These graphics allow pupils to visualize in a simple manner that there is a significant difference between two areas of the schoolyard. They can then propose hypotheses to explain the population differences (abiotic factors such as humidity, temperature for example).

You can also produce graphs showing the evolution of the number of species present seasonally. They allow you to follow changes in the number of individuals over the course of the year (for example, for the notion of bird migration). It is also possible to produce such graphs over several years by accumulating the numbers recorded month by month.

Many other illustrations are possible. For example, pupils can be asked to situate their data on an aerial photo of the school. They can then offer explanations for possible differences in the occupation of the various areas of the school. 
Finally, you will find a wide range of educational activities on our website. Some of them are suggestions for introducing this activity but others take it a step further. For example, we have developed ways for your pupils to learn how to analyze data in the manner of an ecological researcher, or for them to think about actions to be taken within their establishments to promote biodiversity.