As of 2024, NatureCounts hosts over 230 million bird occurrence records and a small number of records from other taxa including reptiles, amphibians, and insects. These records belong to over 900 datasets from hundreds of projects, and reach back over a century. The data cover all species of birds in Canada and include over 17 million records of species-at-risk.

NatureCounts datasets cover a wide array of species, geographical areas, dates, seasons, and sampling methods. Much of the data are from citizen science projects such as the North American Breeding Bird Survey, regional breeding bird atlases, Christmas Bird Counts, eBird, Wildtrax, Project FeederWatch, Project Nestwatch, and more. These data are complemented by data from other research initiatives such as the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network.

The vast majority of the data housed in NatureCounts are open data, meaning that they are available and accessible for use in research and conservation. The varied datasets are standardized using a data schema called the Bird Monitoring Data Exchange, which is covered in the NatureCounts Data Standards section of this resource.

Visit the Datasets page of the NatureCounts website to see the many datasets that are housed in the repository.

Next Section: NatureCounts Data Standards