You can follow in the footsteps of Livingstone or Darwin even in the nearest wooded area, on the bank of a ditch, on the roadside, or perhaps even in your own backyard

It is not necessary to buy a sailboat or organise a month-long journey through the jungle for a scientific expedition. You can follow in the footsteps of Livingstone or Darwin even in the nearest wooded area, on the bank of a ditch, on the roadside or perhaps even in your own backyard. Just keep your eyes open, be interested, and observe the nature – become an amateur scientist.

What is citizen science and how to take part in it?

Citizen science is the contribution of volunteer citizens to science by providing observations, helping compile databases, or engaging in other assisting activities. Usually, citizen science is associated with hobby activities, such as amateur astronomy, birdwatching, insect gathering, meteorological observation, or the like. Citizen science as a term has only been adopted recently in Estonian; it is sometimes called civic science or community science, occasionally hobby science or volunteer science.

By its nature, citizen science is almost as old as humanity, but it is only in recent centuries that citizen science has been recognised and it has separated from science. While researchers are concentrated in research and development institutions and are remunerated for their work, non-scientist nature enthusiasts carry out observations and research on a volunteering basis. Many enthusiasts in a certain field are gathered in various thematic societies or associations – for example, the Estonian Ornithological Society,  which has been operating for a century, brings together ornithologists as well as just bird lovers.

Amateur scientists are an indispensable network of volunteers for, among other things, collecting observational data on a large area and/or over a long period of time, as a limited number of researchers will not be able to collect data on their own or it would be too costly due to insufficient research funding. With the help of volunteers, data collection is easier to carry out and, with successful involvement, the amount of data collected is much higher. To help amateur scientists, a number of web and smart application-based data collection and data management systems have been created, which also make data collection and processing fast and convenient.

Researchers and conservationists use the results of citizen science in organising nature conservation, preparing environmental action plans, assessing the state of the environment, and analysing changes in the distribution of species and their activities. Observational data provided by volunteers have been used, for example, in compiling the bird atlas and the new mammal distribution atlas. 

Hundreds of bird enthusiasts in Estonia have experienced that proud feeling – I, too, have contributed to science! – having participated in the observation days and the counts organised by the Estonian Ornithological Society over the years; the same feeling has been felt by nature enthusiasts who participate in the nature observation marathon  first launched in 2018 or take part in annual observation campaigns. Anyone who has helped collect data has the right to congratulate themselves on contributing to science.

Citizen science events organised by the Estonian Ornithological Society can be found under the section ‘Osale ja vaatle’  (Participate and observe) on the society’s website.

Some examples of such ventures:

• winter-time garden bird watching;
• international birdwatching days EuroBirdwatch; 
• counting wintering land birds;
• counting waterfowl in mid-winter;
• monitoring birds of prey;
• counting nocturnal birds;
• summer garden bird diary;
• counting hatching birds at designated points;
• ornithophenological observations.

Last modified: 17.01.2022