Hummingbirds at Home
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Project Brief
Hummingbirds at Home is a citizen science initiative that crowdsources scientific data collection to understand how climate change is affecting hummingbirds. It includes smartphone apps for iPhone and Android devices, videos, and a website – tools participants can use to log data and to find out about how their actions are helping us learn more about hummingbirds.
Project date
Mar
Apr
2012
2013
Partner
Funding agency
Description
Hummingbirds must sync their migration and nesting times with the flowering of nectar-bearing plants in order to survive. Climate change threatens to throw off this balance, with unknown repercussions. Hummingbirds at Home makes it easy and fun for participants to keep track of the hummingbirds they see while collecting data that helps Audubon scientists understand what we can do to protect hummingbirds. Participants can log their data using apps for iPhone and Android devices or through the Hummingbirds at Home website.
Objectives
We know that scientific research will be essential for understanding how climate change is affecting hummingbirds. But it’s no easy task. Collecting the necessary scientific data across the US is difficult and costly. Hummingbirds at Home makes it possible to crowdsource rigorous science related to hummingbirds.
Outcomes
In the first week it was launched in April 2013, over 2,000 people signed up to be citizen scientists with Hummingbirds at Home. Currently nearly 10,000 people are participating and the numbers continue to grow.