Wondering how it works?

1. Create an account

Enter an email address and create a password to get up and running.

2. Identify a patch

Choose a patch that you can survey for hummingbirds. Your patch can be anything – your backyard, a spot in a nearby park, your school playground, etc. It just needs to be a place that hummingbirds may visit and that you can survey at least once (but hopefully many times!).

3. Conduct scheduled patch surveys

These are surveys or your patch that you plan ahead of time. To begin, click the "ENTER DATA" link in the main menu. You can conduct your survey for as little as 5 minutes and as long as 60 minutes – it’s up to you. During the survey, select any hummingbirds you see from the hummingbird pick list. Also select any food sources – flowering plants and hummingbird feeders—available in your patch. If hummingbirds fed from any of the food sources in your survey, check the appropriate box in the food sources pick list. Then submit your data and you’re done!

4. Submit data on single sightings

If you spot a hummingbird, a flowering plant, and/or a feeding event outside of your scheduled patch survey, we want to know about it! Log these in as “Single Sightings”. These sightings can occur within your patch or anywhere else.

5. Log visits to a nectar source

Choose any single nectar source in your patch and log the number of visits from all hummingbirds during your survey time.

6. Explore everyone's collected data

Check the ‘explore data’ link on the website to discover what we are learning about hummingbirds thanks to the efforts of our community science network. It's now possible to make a meaningful difference for the hummingbirds we love. Join us!