Practice Tool for Estimating Flock Sizes
It can be tricky to get a good feel for estimating bird flock sizes, because many flocks are either flying or moving around so much that it's difficult to get a close count for you to use as a reference for the future. Use this small web app to practice estimating bird counts. Just pick a maximum number of dots to display, generate the "flock," estimate the size, and then you can display the answer when ready. It's probably a better plan to aim at getting a close estimate more than trying to get an exact count, but do whatever you think will be effective for your needs.
It's often recommended that you break flocks into a smaller group, for example, 10, 25, 50, 100, etc. and then extrapolate the size of that group over the whole flock to get a reasonably close estimate.
Scroll down to begin…
Choose the maximum number of dots and click the start button to begin.
Dot count: ?
Note: It's possible for dots to cover each other up, so if the displayed count seems off by one or two, that might be what happened. The same thing happens with real birds, though!
Feel free to email LycoBirds@gmail.com about any issues you notice or feedback for future improvements.
