How will birds and animals react to the solar eclipse on Monday, August 21?  Will they act differently during the total eclipse (from Oregon to South Carolina) compared to the partial eclipse here in Pittsburgh? You can help Science answer these questions.

We have anecdotes about animal behavior during solar eclipses but not a lot of scientific data.

People have noticed that birds stop singing, farm animals return to the barn, and night critters wake up.  Are they reacting to totality as if it’s a miniature night?  Or is it something else?

Science doesn’t have answers because the data has been hard to collect.  To reach a conclusion, the scientific method gathers data over and over again under the same conditions.  It’s hard to do for total eclipses because in any one location they occur as much as 400 years apart.

But this time will be different. On Monday August 21, thousands — or even millions of us — will collect data on animal behavior before, during, and after the eclipse thanks to the Life Responds: Solar Eclipse 2017 project and the iNaturalist app. The project will analyze our data and repeat the experiment during the next eclipse.

Here’s how you can help.  (Instructions are from the Life Responds: Solar Eclipse 2017 project.  Click the link for more information.)

Before the eclipse. Day(s) ahead of time.

1. Download the free iNaturalist app to your Android (Google Play) or iPhone (App Store)
2. Open the app and create an account at iNaturalist.org
3. Practice using the app. Here are some instructions.
4. Inside the app, join the Life Responds project
5. Decide where you’ll be observing the eclipse and know when it’ll be at maximum darkness.

On the Day of the Eclipse:

1. When you get to your observation site, choose the birds and animals you’ll observe.
2. Post at least 3 observations of the birds/animals in iNaturalist at the times below. Add anything interesting you notice in the Notes.
   1. 30 minutes before maximum darkness.
   2. During maximum darkness or totality
   3. 30 minutes after maximum darkness.
3. Make additional observations if you wish.

The cool thing about this project is that you don’t have to be in the path of totality to provide useful data.

Do the birds stop singing at dark and restart when it’s light? (This is a trick question! Few of them sing in August.) Do the chimney swifts dive into chimneys to roost?  Do the squirrels go to bed?  Do the deer come out?  What about your pet?  And if you’re a beekeeper, how are your honeybees?

I’ve downloaded the app and I’m ready.  I sure hope it isn’t cloudy on Monday, August 21!

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)

p.s. Observing Machines:  If you’re in a city in the path of totality, the street lights will come on.  Will they come on in Pittsburgh?