By EMILY D. COOK / Community Columnist

Each year The Cornell Lab and the Audubon Society holds the Great Backyard Bird Count in February to count birds to better understand the species and numbers of birds in the United States and all across the world.

Last year, over 147,000 checklists were submitted with 5,090 species observed and over 18 million individual birds counted.

This year, Oak Mountain State Park and the Alabama Wildlife Center are hosting an event together to count birds in the park to help with the Great Backyard Bird Count. Come out on Feb. 13 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. to enjoy a day of birds and help with scientific data collection.

Learn about bird identification, choose from three locations to count birds, enjoy a bird program and have refreshments.

Alabama is home to roughly 158 regularly breeding species, 174 species that visit in winter and 80 species that are migratory.

Oak Mountain State Park is in a migratory flyway so we have many visitors as they head south for the winter or north for the summer, some even find that the park is a great place to stay instead of traveling further south.

Some visitors that you might see are Dark-eyed Juncos, Pied-billed Grebes, American Goldfinches, Common Loons, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and many others.

Residents in the park are Eastern Bluebirds, Belted Kingfishers, Wild Turkey, Northern Cardinals and more.

Please remember that you keep Alabama State Parks open by visiting them. Thank you for your support.