Digital Point Counts

If you are not yet comfortable identifying most species by sound, you can also help by using a digital recorder to make point counts, which will later be interpreted by more experienced birders. The steps are relatively straight-forward:

1. Contact your Regional Coordinator to ask about borrowing a handheld recording device and to confirm which point counts you will conduct.
2. Review the Point Count Manual to ensure you understand the methodology.
3. Conduct your digital point counts (refer to the Cheat Sheet for zoom settings).
4. Download and fill out a log of the recordings you made. (If the download doesn’t begin automatically, click here).
5. Upload your recordings to the FTP server (see video tutorial below) or contact the Regional Coordinator or Atlas Office for other options.
6. Email a copy of your digital log (see step 4, above) along with a confirmation that you have uploaded your files to atlas@birdsontario.org with a subject line “[your name] digital point counts [year]”