---
title: "Citizen science"
chunk: 8/19
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:48:48.750305+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Citizen science projects have become increasingly focused on providing benefits to scientific research. The North American Bird Phenology Program (historically called the Bird Migration and Distribution records) may have been the earliest collective effort of citizens collecting ornithological information in the U.S. The program, dating back to 1883, was started by Wells Woodbridge Cooke. Cooke established a network of observers around North America to collect bird migration records. The Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, which began in 1900, is another example of a long-standing tradition of citizen science which has persisted to the present day, now containing a collection of six million handwritten migration observer cards that date back to the 19th century. Participants input this data into an online database for analysis. Citizen scientists help gather data that will be analyzed by professional researchers, and can be used to produce bird population and biodiversity indicators.
Raptor migration research relies on the data collected by the hawkwatching community. This mostly volunteer group counts migrating accipiters, buteos, falcons, harriers, kites, eagles, osprey, vultures and other raptors at hawk sites throughout North America during the spring and fall seasons. The daily data is uploaded to hawkcount.org where it can be viewed by professional scientists and the public.
Other programs in North America include Project FeederWatch, which is affiliated with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Such indices can be useful tools to inform management, resource allocation, policy and planning. For example, European breeding bird survey data provide input for the Farmland Bird Index, adopted by the European Union as a structural indicator of sustainable development. This provides a cost-effective alternative to government monitoring.
Similarly, data collected by citizen scientists as part of BirdLife Australia's has been analysed to produce the first-ever Australian Terrestrial Bird Indices.
In the UK, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds collaborated with a children's TV show to create a national birdwatching day in 1979; the campaign has continued for over 40 years and in 2024, over 600,000 people counted almost 10 million birds during the Big Garden Birdwatch weekend.
Most recently, more programs have sprung up worldwide, including NestWatch, a bird species monitoring program which tracks data on reproduction. This might include studies on when and how often nesting occurs, counting eggs laid and how many hatch successfully, and what proportion of hatchlings survive infancy. Participation in this program is extremely easy for the general public to join. Using the recently created nest watch app which is available on almost all devices, anyone can begin to observe their local species, recording results every 3 to 4 days within the app. This forms a continually-growing database which researchers can view and utilize to understand trends within specific bird populations.

=== Citizen oceanography ===
The concept of citizen science has been extended to the ocean environment for characterizing ocean dynamics and tracking marine debris. For example, the mobile app Marine Debris Tracker is a joint partnership of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Georgia. Long term sampling efforts such as the continuous plankton recorder has been fitted on ships of opportunity since 1931. Plankton collection by sailors and subsequent genetic analysis was pioneered in 2013 by Indigo V Expeditions as a way to better understand marine microbial structure and function.

=== Coral reefs ===
Citizen science in coral reef studies developed in the 21st century.
Underwater photography has become more popular since the development of moderate priced digital cameras with waterproof housings in the early 2000s, resulting on millions of pictures posted every year on various websites and social media. This mass of documentation has great scientific potential, as millions of tourists possess a much superior coverage power than professional scientists, who cannot spend so much time in the field.
As a consequence, several participative sciences programs have been developed, supported by geotagging and identification web sites such as iNaturalist. The Monitoring through many eyes project collates thousands of underwater images of the Great Barrier Reef and provides an interface for elicitation of reef health indicators.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also offers opportunities for volunteer participation. By taking measurements in The United States' National Marine Sanctuaries, citizens contribute data to marine biology projects. In 2016, NOAA benefited from 137,000 hours of research.
There also exist protocols for auto-organization and self-teaching aimed at biodiversity-interested snorkelers, in order for them to turn their observations into sound scientific data, available for research. This kind of approach has been successfully used in Réunion island, allowing for tens of new records and even new species.

=== Freshwater fish ===
Aquarium hobbyists and their respective organizations are very passionate about fish conservation and often more knowledgeable about specific fish species and groups than scientific researchers. They have played an important role in the conservation of freshwater fishes by discovering new species, maintaining extensive databases with ecological information on thousands of species (such as for catfish, Mexican freshwater fishes, killifishes, cichlids), and successfully keeping and providing endangered and extinct-in-the-wild species for conservation projects. The CARES (Conservation, Awareness, Recognition, Encouragement, and Support) preservation program is the largest hobbyist organization containing over 30 aquarium societies and international organizations, and encourages serious aquarium hobbyists to devote tank space to the most threatened or extinct-in-the-wild species to ensure their survival for future generations.

=== Amphibians ===
Citizen scientists also work to monitor and conserve amphibian populations. One recent project is FrogWatch USA, organized by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Participants are invited to educate themselves on their local wetlands and help to save amphibian populations by reporting the data on the calls of local frogs and toads. The project already has over 150,000 observations from more than 5000 contributors. Participants are trained by program coordinators to identify calls and utilize this training to report data they find between February and August of each "monitoring season". Data is used to monitor diversity, invasion, and long-term shifts in population health within these frog and toad communities.