By Paul Baicich & Wayne Petersen, editors of the monthly Birding Community E-bulletin which often contains important national wildlife refuge and bird conservation information.
T’is the season for many things… including the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). This upcoming count will be the 125th consecutive count to be run during this holiday season, with the first having occurred on Christmas Day in 1900. On that day, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman (American Museum of Natural History) organized many friends scattered across America to engage in a census of every bird species they saw on Christmas Day.
Christmas Bird Count in Elizabeth New Jersey near Great Swamp NWR, NJ | Randi Emmer/Friends of Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
What actually inspired Chapman was the idea of creating a positive alternative to “Christmas bird hunts” (or competitive “side hunts”) popular at the time. Groups of mostly men and boys would gather and choose “sides” or split into teams on Christmas Day to compete in the shooting as many birds – and small mammals – as they could for the day.Â
Chapman’s experimental alternative started with 25 separate bird counts, with about 90 bird species tallied. His colleagues conducted these counts in Boston and New York City, southward to Baldwin, Louisiana, to the Front Range of the Rockies in Pueblo, Colorado, and westward to Pacific Grove, California. There were even two CBCs in eastern Canada, in Ontario and New Brunswick.
You can see a fascinating summary of that original count of 1900 here>>
In the last run of counts, the National Audubon Society, which coordinates these counts, marked a new record of 2,677 count “circles” with 83,186 participants. These counts were held not only in the United State, but also in Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands.
The main idea of the CBC is record as many birds as possible within a designated area in one day. The count is run in a “count circle” with a diameter of 15 miles.
Bohemian Waxwings feeding in a Mountain Ash Tree, AK | Lisa Hupp/USFWS
Multiple volunteers will engage in smaller sub-parties to count the species in their “sector,” or they might follow an assigned route. These sectors usually remain the same from year to year, making comparisons possible in terms of species, numbers, and more changes over the years. Also, in many count circles, there will be some volunteer participants who will watch bird feeders instead of following routes. (Of the 83,186 participants for the last CBC, over 11,000 were “feeder counters.”)
At the end of the count day, the total numbers are compiled locally and sent to the National Audubon Society which creates a full tally and makes the information available. You can find regional summaries for the 124th CBC here>>
Birding at National Elk Refuge, WY | Gannon Castle/USFWS
The great news for fans of the National Wildlife Refuge System is that some of our favorite national wildlife refuges fall within the sweep of these CBC circles, and engaging in a CBC is a fun and practical way to help in refuge support. A CBC can serve as yet another helpful tool in assembling information about the birds that live at – and near – your favorite national wildlife refuge. Many times, a local Refuge Friends Group is already connected with the CBC experience. Depending on the location and major habitats at your refuge, the wintering status of many birds – e.g., ducks, geese, long-legged waders, raptors, and shorebirds – will be appropriately recorded.
This upcoming CBC count-period extends from December 14th, 2024 to 5 January 5th, 2025. And now is the perfect time to prepare, perhaps scouting some refuge areas in advance with other observers to get ready for the actual CBC.
And you can click on the map here to find a nearby count of interest to get in touch the local count’s compiler.
In short, the experience is fun, engaging, and can make a contribution to what we continue to learn about birds in and around our favorite national wildlife refuges.
Paul Baicich and Wayne Petersen are the editors of the monthly Birding Community E-bulletin which often contains important NWR and bird-conservation information. To view some of their recent editions, archived on the National Wildlife Refuge Association website, see here>>