Comments on: The 109th annual Christmas bird count http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecologist-2/ecology-education/the-109th-annual-christmas-bird-count/ EcoTone focuses on ecological science in the news and its use in policy, conservation and education. Thu, 16 May 2013 19:04:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: JohnPolo http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecologist-2/ecology-education/the-109th-annual-christmas-bird-count/comment-page-1/#comment-13299 JohnPolo Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:41:47 +0000 http://www.esa.org/esablog/?p=172#comment-13299 I participated in my first count in Pasco County, Florida this year. I’m not a great a birder, most smaller song birds move too quickly for me to tell spp apart. I’m enthusiastic about birding and science and I want the count to reflect as accurate a number as possible. So, on one hand, citizen science isn’t necessarily all that great when the scientist is undertrained.

On the other hand, I was partnered with two people who _were_ able to tell a yellow-rumped from a palm warbler. So, citizen science _can_ be a successful endeavor. At the worst, between the three of us, we might have undercounted a group of swallows or missed a red-bellied woodpecker.

The take away? Citizen science is symbolic of an engaged public and can make a contribution to the bigger picture, but the science part may need to be handled with caution.

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