Project FeederWatch Raw Data
Description
Project FeederWatch is a citizen science project operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada. Since November 1988, "FeederWatchers" (members of the public) have been following a standardized protocol for observing and reporting birds that visit supplemental feeding stations (bird feeders) in the US and Canada. This dataset contains raw data submitted to Project FeederWatch. The data are intended to be completely open access. The "FeederWatch Data Dictionary" file included with this dataset is critical for understanding fields and their contents. The dataset contains millions of records from > 60,000 count locations. Note that, due to the large file sizes, we have divided the dataset into multiple clusters of years. The FeederWatch season runs from November 1 through April each winter/spring (in the northern hemisphere). As such, the “2025” FeederWatch season includes data from November 1, 2024 – April 30, 2025, and the ‘PFW_birdobs_2021_2025’ file includes data from November 1, 2020 – April 30, 2025. For meaningful use of the data, please consult the data paper describing the FeederWatch dataset: Bonter, D.N. and E.I. Greig. 2021. Over 30 years of standardized bird counts at supplementary feeding stations in North America: A citizen science data report for Project FeederWatch. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9: Article 619682 doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.619682 The dataset is scheduled for updates annually on or about June 1. Details about Project FeederWatch can be found on the project website: www.feederwatch.org. Data files are on the FeederWatch web site here: https://feederwatch.org/explore/raw-dataset-requests/ See documentation at https://feederwatch.org/explore/raw-dataset-requests/ for the latest details.
Files
Steps to reproduce
We strongly encourage data users to consult the published data paper that fully describes the dataset: Bonter, D.N. E.I. Greig. 2021. Over 30 years of standardized bird counts at supplementary feeding stations in North America: A citizen science data report for Project FeederWatch. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9: Article 619682 doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.619682 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.619682/full
Institutions
- Cornell UniversityNY, Ithaca