Australia's bird count passed 3.7 million birds, with room to keep going
The 2026 Aussie Bird Count was already ahead of last year's pace, and a Wollongong class spent its 20 minutes beside a creek full of frogmouths and parrots.
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Australians had already logged more than 3.7 million birds in the 2026 Aussie Bird Count when the Guardian reported on it on October 24. Sean Dooley of BirdLife Australia said the tally was on pace to beat 2025, when about 64,000 people counted more than 5 million birds. Last year's most common records were the Australian magpie, the rainbow lorikeet, and the noisy miner. Anyone can join by watching for 20 minutes and entering the birds in the project app. The count ran through midnight on Sunday, October 25.
One of those watches happened at Cedars Christian College in Wollongong, where teacher Karen Jooste used the count with a year-two class. The school looks onto a creek. Students recorded tawny frogmouths with two chicks, magpies, magpie-larks, wood ducks, Pacific black ducks, king parrots, rainbow lorikeets, and a bowerbird. The exercise doubled as practice in careful looking, writing, and the idea that a local patch of habitat is worth a number. The national total was still climbing when the article was published.
For the classroom
The Guardian reported that Australians had already counted more than 3.7 million birds in the 2026 Aussie Bird Count. Organizers hoped to pass last year's total of more than 5 million. Anyone can watch birds for 20 minutes and enter what they see in an app. A teacher in Wollongong used the count with a class beside a creek where frogmouths, ducks, and parrots live.
- Why does a 20-minute watch, repeated by many people, add up to a useful count?
- Which birds would you expect in a schoolyard near you?
- What should you write down besides the bird's name?
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