Green Hands USA: America Volunteers

One of the highlights of my day is watching the dozens of birds that gather in my backyard every morning. This weekend, I'll be watching those birds, then turning to my computer to talk about what I see.

Like tens of thousands of Americans, I'll be participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count. From February 12-15, this mega-event asks Americans and Canadians to look out their windows for 15 minutes and log in the birds that they see. The Count seeks not just species but also numbers, all of which will create a massive database of bird populations across the country.

The Bird Count web site contains great information about what bird species you're likely to find in your area, as well as links to local events. There's also a photo contest and all kinds of information on feeding and identifying local birds.

You can also view interactive maps of previous years' Bird Count data -- all of which are great fun.

Why count birds this weekend? The information gleaned from all of this will help scientists to see how temperatures affect bird populations; see what invasive species are turning up where; and find out what species are experiencing declines.

Last year, more than 94,000 people participated in the Bird Count. Together, they observed more than 11.5 million individual birds of 620 species. That's an amazing amount of data that will be of enormous use for decades to come.

So take some time over the next few days to count a few birds. The information you find in just 15 minutes will be invaluable.