The 21st annual Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up next weekend, with bird watchers recording the birds they see and entering checklists online.

The count spans four days Feb. 16-19, from Friday through Monday. Last year, more than 240,000 bird watchers from more than 100 countries submitted checklists reporting more than 6,000 species around the world.

The citizen science project was launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society. It creates an annual snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds.

Anyone can join in for free. Participants register and enter data online. Anyone can simply tally the numbers and kinds of birds one sees for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count.

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For more information, visit www.birdcount.org

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