Beyond the Checklist: How to Explore, Experiment, and Have Fun With Your Birding Data

Confession: I don’t make checklists while birding. I admit this with some guilt, because I know that birders’ observations fuel community science and conservation action. But I’ve worried that collecting data while birding would make it feel clinical. Recently, though, I’ve come to see things differently. I’ve found that quantifying my experience in crea­tive ways can enrich my time in the field. Data can be—gasp—fun.

“Most of us, as birders, are collect­ing data,” says Jer Thorp, a writer, data artist, and frequent checklister. But counting species, he says, is just the beginning. In an online class Thorp teaches on birding and data, one of his favorite assignments directs students to find a nice spot and stay put for an hour. From there, it’s up to them to chronicle their observations however they like—except with a traditional checklist. 

“Data is just what you decide to pay attention to,” says Mikko Jimenez, an urban ecologist who took Thorp’s class while complet­ing his Ph.D. at Colorado State University. With this anything-goes perspective, the options are endless: You could track squabbles at your feeder or how often American Robins pluck worms from the dirt. You could chart your local park’s winter soundscape, marking each time you hear nuthatches, chickadees, and crows. You could even forget about identification and spend a morning recording all the feather colors you see.

What you do with your data is equally limitless. Thorp’s students have crafted origami sculptures to represent species’ conservation status and sent postcards to friends and family with hand-drawn graphs about their bird encounters. “Data is not a thing that we usually think about as carrying love,” Thorp says—but why couldn’t it be?

Getting inventive can also help entice new birders, Jimenez says. Rather than barrage newbies with names and numbers, set aside the checklist and try drawing your friends’ focus to, say, all the strange sounds that birds are making around them. “I think that makes birding a lot more interesting and accessible to people,” he says.

And if you are a lister, you already have a rich data resource to explore. Why not try plotting all your sightings of a favorite species on a timeline or a map? If you want to go further, you can download data from many community science platforms, including Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count and your own eBird account. But you don’t need any computing power to start experimenting with birding data, just your interest and an open mind.

I took Thorp’s course this past spring, and it helped me to pay attention to birds in an entirely new fashion. I still don’t keep a life list, but thinking differently about data has changed how I approach birding. Each time I head to the park I ask myself: What do I want to admire today? And I let my curiosity lead the way.

Beyond the Checklist

Shift your perspective with these low-tech data ideas.
 

1. Focus on Sex Ratios

Observe: Choose a few species with distinct-looking males and females  (think Northern Cardinal, Mallard, House Finch) and classify all the individuals you see over the course of a morning: Male, Female, or Can’t Tell. Do you observe an even split? Does the ratio vary by species?
Illustrate: Draw a set of stacked bar charts or pie charts.
Analyze: Repeat the experiment throughout the year to see if proportions shift. Now that you’re paying attention, does it get harder to tell the sexes apart at certain times of year? Can you observe any differences in behavior between males and females?
 

2. Focus on Bird Proximity

Observe: For an hour (or however long you choose), sit in one spot and see how close birds get to you, noting their species and making your best estimate of distance. Monitor every direction around you, including overhead.
Illustrate: Plot your data on a number line or with overlapping circles.
Analyze: How did tracking proximity change your experience of birding? Do any factors besides literal distance, like size or rarity, affect how close a bird “feels” to you? Repeat the experiment all by ear, estimating distances based on bird vocalizations.
 

3. Focus on Your Delight

Observe: Become your own subject and track your joy! Start a timer and bird for an hour. Each time you see or hear a bird, record the time, species, and your own rating of the spike of delight the observation gives you (a scale of 10 works well).
Illustrate: Make a simple ranking from most to least joy-inducing or a timeline of your peaks and valleys throughout the hour.
Analyze: What really brought you the most bliss? Was it the species itself, or did the setting factor into your response? Collect more data: Does hearing the bird sing increase your­ ­delight rating? Do perched birds stir your heart as much as soaring ones? Try the exercise with a friend and compare your results.

This story originally ran in the Winter 2025 issue as “Numbers Game.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.