LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the last four days, people across Louisville have been participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count. Every February, people all across the world count the number of birds and the number of species they can find.

Andrew Melnykovych has been birding for over 60 years.

“My dad, when I was about ten years old, decided I needed something to keep myself busy; so, he gave me a bird guide and a pair of binoculars, and off I went,” said Melnykovych, board member for the Beckham Bird Club.

Birding is a skill that he said takes practice and experience. Melnykovych said even after doing it for years a person can make mistakes.

“There’s a red tail. That’s a regular occurrence out here is a red tail on the tower,” he said. 

Now he is leading a bird walk on one of the biggest days in birding, the Great Backyard Bird Count. He said events like this one help raise awareness for bird populations.

“People understand that these are the birds that we have here. These are the ones that we need to be paying attention to because their populations might be in trouble. It’s more of an awareness building exercise than a scientific exercise,” the former president of the Beckham Bird Club said. 

According to Cornell University, nearly three billion birds since 1970 have been lost. The experienced birder attributes some of that loss to climate change.

“For example, grassland birds in the Midwest are really declining because that habitat is being paved over, farmed over whatever. So their natural habitats declining dramatically and their population numbers are declining dramatically,” he said. 

At last check, the Great Backyard Bird Count has seen over 7,665 species in over 250 sub regions around the world. So far, Kentucky is reporting 120 different species.