Participants of all skill levels are welcome. If you’re new to bird identification, the Merlin Bird ID app can help you figure out what kind of bird you’re looking at or hearing. There are lots of excellent tools for bird identification and appreciation out there. (If you really want to nerd out, check out the Cornell lab’s new phylogeny explorer, which allows you to delve into the entire family tree of birds.) Or you could go old-school—forgo the gadgets and record your observations with pen and paper in the field, then enter your data into eBird afterward.