Courtesy Photo A cardinal appears in this undated News archive photo.

Thunder Bay Audubon Society will participate in the 22nd Great Backyard Bird Count Friday through Monday, and the public is encouraged to join them by counting birds and submitting their forms online at gbbc.birdcount.org.

Every February, the event happens throughout the world. People are asked to count “for as little as 15 minutes in your own backyard to help expand our understanding of birds,” according to the National Audubon Society’s website.

“The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a free, fun, and easy event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations,” the website explains. “Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from beginning bird watchers to experts, and you can participate from your backyard, or anywhere in the world.”

Researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society evaluate the checklists to learn how birds are doing, and how to protect them. Last year, more than 160,000 participants submitted their bird observations online, which resulted in the largest snapshot of global bird populations ever recorded.

“Bird populations are always shifting and changing. For example, 2014 GBBC data highlighted a large irruption of Snowy Owls across the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes areas of the United States,” according to the National Audubon Society website. “The data also showed the effects that warm weather patterns have had on bird movement around the country.”

In conjunction with the GBBC, a photo contest opens for pictures of wild birds taken Friday through Monday, which can then be submitted for the contest through March 1. For full contest rules, visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/photo-contest-rules/.

For more information about the GBBC, call TBAS President Karen Tetzlaff at 989-340-0129, email her at tetzlaffk@gmail.com, or visit the Thunder Bay Audubon Society online at www.thunderbayaudubon.com.

The Thunder Bay Audubon Society is a chapter of the Michigan Audubon Society.