Whether they squawk or twitter, swoop or swim, Australia's birds are being sought out for this year's national count of our feathered friends.
The week-long Aussie Backyard Bird Count is aiming to find a record 1.5 million birds before it wraps up on Sunday.
The count is now in its fourth year and organisers from conservation group Birdlife Australia are confident they can beat last year's total of 1.4 million birds that were spotted by more than 61,000 people.
Birdlife Australia spokesman Sean Dooley says about 389,000 birds were recorded when this year's count kicked off on Monday, with an estimated 6,000 people taking part on day one.
"That augurs well for a record count," he told AAP on Tuesday.
To take part, you don't need to be an expert twitcher or even have a traditional backyard.
A special Aussie Backyard Bird Count app helps identify various species, whether they appear in a backyard or apartment balcony, park, school playground, bushland reserve, by the beach or a wetland.
The rainbow lorikeet was the most common bird counted last year, followed by the noisy miner and Australian magpie.
Mr Dooley said the annual bird counts help fill in big gaps in knowledge about Aussie birds and have so far uncovered a wealth of interesting data, including the decline of sparrows in many urban areas and a drop off in kookaburra numbers in east coast cities.
"We actually have as many birds as we've ever had in our suburbs in terms of raw numbers but the number of species we have, the diversity, is dropping," he said.
"So it might look on the surface like things are going well because you have thousands of rainbow lorikeets and noisy miners but if they are the only species surviving that has all sorts of implications for the urban environment.
"When you see the larger, more aggressive birds rising in number, like the magpies, currawongs, ravens, crows, butcher birds and noisy miners, you tend to get fewer small birds, which tend to be the insect eaters and do a great job of keeping insect numbers down."
AUSSIE BIRD FACTS
* 1,403,788 birds were counted in the 2016 Great Aussie Bird Count
* 576 different species were identified
* Top three birds: rainbow lorikeet, noisy miner, Australian magpie
* People in NSW counted the most birds - 493,987
* More than 800 species of birds have been recorded in Australia
* 237 birds are listed as at risk, extinct, critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable
* Main threats to Aussie birds: change in habitat, predators, human activity
(Source: Birdlife Australia)
