Category: Christmas Bird Count

The Christmas Bird Count is the longest running community science project. It began in 1900 as an effort to view birds instead of hunt them. 15-mile circles are established worldwide and counts made from mid-December through early January each year. Compiled numbers indicate trends in the health of birds worldwide.

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The Christmas Bird Count is a Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Downy Woodpecker Male at Feeder, Courtesy & © Hilary Shughart, Photographer
Downy Woodpecker Male at Feeder
Courtesy & © Hilary Shughart, Photographer

Downy Woodpecker Using Tools? Courtesy & © Hilary Shughart, Photographer Downy Woodpecker Using Tools?
Courtesy & © Hilary Shughart, Photographer

When the winter chill sets in, that’s my cue to start filling the suet feeders, plug in the heated bird bath, and keep the Black Oil Sunflower Seed in stock for the grand variety of birds which visit my home through the Winter. I feed the birds because I know that my visitors will have better success in raising their families next Spring, but also because they are such fun to watch! Just yesterday I was mesmerized by a Downy Woodpecker taking black oil sunflower seeds one by one from the hanging squirrel-proof bird feeder, flying onto the deck railing, and hopping along about six feet to place the seed in a knothole serving as a mortar to the beak pestle, thus gaining access to the tasty seed inside the hard shell. I immediately wondered if this behavior might qualify as tool use, but suspected it would not meet a strict definition. Sure enough, this clever problem-solving activity is not considered to be tool use, but it is no less fascinating!

This is a great time to discover the joy of bird watching and contributing to community science. The annual National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count is hosted by many organizations in many locations, with a single day selected between December 14th through January 5th. The Christmas Bird Count database was established by Frank Chapman in 1900, when holiday shooting parties were replaced with counting parties as a proactive response to the noticeable decline bird numbers.
Cache Valley (Logan) Utah Circle 125th Annual Christmas Bird Count Visit BridgerlandAudubon.org
The Bridgerland Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count is always hosted on the first Saturday on or following December 14th, and we have been contributing Cache Valley, Utah data to the National Audubon database since 1956. You can watch from home if you live within the 15-mile diameter watch circle area centered at Main Street and Hyde Park Lane – that is if you live within 7.5 miles of the intersection of Hwy 91 & 3600 N, which includes all or part of Amalga, Smithfield, North Logan, Hyde Park, Logan, Logan Canyon, River Heights, Providence, Mendon, Benson, and unincorporated Cache County. Check the interactive map on our website to determine if your home is inside the watch circle. There’s limited space available with the wandering watch groups, too.

Even if you only see the occasional American Robin or Magpie, please do consider participating in a Christmas Bird Count near you. We welcome newcomers and beginners, and hope that you will enjoy contributing to the longest running community science program which provides data for scientists worldwide.

For identification assistance you can post photos on our Facebook group. Please don’t forget that Zero is a number – we want your final report even if you didn’t see a single bird outside your home. Consider hosting a cozy watch party, sharing hot chocolate with friends and neighbors while sharpening observation and identification skills, keeping hearts and minds full and growing in wonderful ways.

For more information check our website to register at no cost at BridgerlandAudubon.org – that’s Bridgerland Audubon A-U-D-U-B-O-N dot org.

I’m Hilary Shughart with the Bridgerland Audubon Society, and I am Wild About Utah!

Credits:
Images: Courtesy US Fish & Wildlife Service, Leah Schrodt and Brett Billings, Photographers
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections/kevin-colver & Friend Weller, https://www.upr.org/people/friend-weller
Text: Hilary Shughart, President, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Hilary Shughart and Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional ReadingSupplemental food and water are important ways we can reduce stress for backyard birds
WildAboutUtah pieces by Hilary Shughart, https://wildaboututah.org/author/hilary-shughart/

ChristmasBirdCount.org which forwards to the following National Audubon page: https://www.audubon.org/community-science/christmas-bird-count

Christmas Bird Count on the National Audubon website: https://www.audubon.org/community-science/christmas-bird-count/join-christmas-bird-count

Regional Christmas Bird Counts found on UtahBirds.org: http://www.utahbirds.org/cbc/cbc.html

Bridgerland Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/cbc/

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’Tis the Season for Counting Birds, and We Hope You Will Give it a Try!

Cardinal in Snow Courtesy Pixabay
Cardinal in Snow
Courtesy Pixabay
(A Very Rare Bird in Logan. However reported to eBird in 2010, Ivins, UT.)

Cache Valley (Logan) Utah Circle, 124th Annual Christmas Bird Count, Visit BridgerlandAudubon.org Cache Valley (Logan) Utah Circle
December 16, 2023
124th Annual Christmas Bird Count
67th Local Bird Count
Visit BridgerlandAudubon.org

Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb 16-19, 2024, Courtesy Cornell Lab of Ornithology & Bird Canada, Sponsors, GBBC Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb 16-19, 2024
Courtesy Cornell Lab of Ornithology & Bird Canada, Sponsors, GBBC. For more information visit BridgerlandAudubon.org

Count Winter Feeder Birds for Science, Project FeederWatch, Short-eared Owl, Courtesy Project FeederWatch, Walt Cochran, Photographer Count Winter Feeder Birds for Science
Project FeederWatch
Short-eared Owl, Courtesy Project FeederWatch, Walt Cochran, Photographer
For more information visit BridgerlandAudubon.org

The National Audubon Society invites novice and expert bird watchers to participate in the Annual Christmas Bird Count. This is an opportunity to contribute to a long-standing tradition of inviting everyone to play a role in Conservation by observing and counting birds.

The Christmas Bird Count is an annual 24 hour bird survey which takes place in pre-designated 15-mile diameter Watch Circles between December 14 and January 5. Participation is free, but pre-registration is required.

Dedicated bird lovers face the elements for a full day of trekking and observing along familiar routes, in organized teams, following mapping protocols and a daylong commitment, but anyone who lives inside a Watch Circle can stay cozy inside observing birds through the windows.

It’s important to remember that time spent watching is counted – the total effort is counted even if there are zero birds observed. And, if you think you spotted a rare bird, be sure to take photos for confirmation. Birds will linger longer where they can perch and shelter in trees and shrubs, and especially if they find treats such as Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, White Proso Millet, suet, and of course, fresh clean water!

Whether or not you live in or near a Christmas Bird Count Watch Circle, be sure to mark your calendar for the mid-February Great Backyard Bird Count, which is an easy event for everyone everywhere, and only requires participants to count birds in their own backyard for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish).

In fact, when it comes to counting birds, every day can indeed be like Christmas, with the option to use the eBird smartphone app developed by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, allowing birdwatchers to log their data directly into a growing searchable database.

Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count is a prime example of how everyday observations from first-time volunteers and experts alike can make a big difference in understanding changing patterns in our world. One advantage of the staggered schedules is that you are welcome to participate in as many circles as you wish.

Find out more about watch circle events near you, including early morning Owling, and After School and pre-count Scouting Bird Walks. For more information visit BridgerlandAudubon.org, that’s Bridgerland A-U-D-U-B-O-N dot org.

I’m Hilary Shughart with the Bridgerland Audubon Society and I am Wild About Utah, and Wild About the roughly 100 species documented in our Annual Christmas Bird Count in Cache Valley since 1955!

Credits:
Images: Red Cardinal, Courtesy Pixabay
    Cache Valley (Logan), Count Circle, Courtesy Bryan Dixon, 2015
    Great Backyard Bird Count Courtesy BirdCount.org, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon, and Birds Canada
    FeederWatch Courtesy BirdCount.org, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections/kevin-colver and Friend Weller, Utah Public Radio
Text: Hilary Shughart, President, Bridgerland Audubon Society
Additional Reading: Hilary Shughart and Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

WildAboutUtah pieces by Hilary Shughart, https://wildaboututah.org/author/hilary-shughart/

Utah Birds list of Regional Christmas Bird Counts

Worldwide Christmas Bird Count Map, Zoom in to locate the closest to you, National Audubon, https://gis.audubon.org/christmasbirdcount/

Bridgerland Audubon CBC Toolkit https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/our-projects/cache-valley-christmas-bird-count/

National Audubon Data: Annual Summaries of the Christmas Bird Count, 1901-Present https://www.audubon.org/content/american-birds-annual-summary-christmas-bird-count

Tips from eBird on How to count large flocks of birds:
“Big numbers of Moving Birds. Their are two ways to count large flocks of moving birds: either by blocking off a group of individuals, counting them, and then extrapolating to the whole of the flock; or by counting birds per unit of time.”
Team eBird, Bird Counting 101, eBird is a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://ebird.org/news/counting-101/

General Tips for Bird Identification:
Mayntz, Melissa, Bird Bill Parts, The Spruce, Updated on 08/01/22, https://www.thespruce.com/bird-bill-parts-387362

Project FeederWatch: November-April
Project FeederWatch Background on BridgerlandAudubon.org: https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/birding-tools/birding-events/project-feederwatch/
FeederWatch.org, the official site: https://www.feederwatch.org/

The Great Backyard BirdCount, February 16-19, 2024
GBBC Background on BridgerlandAudubon.org: https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/birding-tools/birding-events/great-backyard-bird-count/
BirdCount.org, the official site: https://www.birdcount.org/

eBird Resources
eBird Background & Reports on BridgerlandAudubon.org: https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/birding-tools/ebird/
eBird Resources: https://ebird.org/about/resources
eBird.org site: https://ebird.org/

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The Christmas Bird Count: Connecting to our ever changing natural world

The Christmas Bird Count: Evening Grosbeak Courtesy US FWS George Gentry, Photographer
Evening Grosbeak
Courtesy US FWS
George Gentry, Photographer
My boots crunch loudly on the snow and we pause frequently to uncover a bundled-up ear from hats and hoods to listen. We are listening for birds like the high-pitched call of a cedar waxwing, clear trilling song of a ruby-crowned kinglet, or the incessant sounds of the red-breasted nut-hatch. The bright light from the rising winter sun sparkles brilliantly on the snow, which marks the start of a full day of birding ahead in the dead of winter. I, along with many others, make these winter birding treks annually to collect data for the Christmas Bird Count, which is the longest running community science project. This count began in 1900 as an effort by an Ornithologist, Frank M. Chapman, to start a new holiday tradition to encourage people to look at birds instead of hunt them. Fast forward to 121 years later and we are still collecting data instead of dinners. The first count in the State of Utah started not long after in Provo in 1903 with many other places following suit across the state as the years went on.

The rules are simple; count all of the birds both seen and heard within a designated 15-mile diameter area over the entire day of the count which must be sometime between 14 December and 5 January. The result of these local and national counts now equates to a treasure trove of data. Every year since 1956 when the count started in Cache Valley, we observe around 90 species, though weather permitting we can see upwards of 100 species.

Data from these counts are valuable in documenting species like the Evening Grosbeak, a large vibrantly yellow-colored finch which migrates in large flocks. In the early days of the Christmas Bird Count, Evening Grosbeaks would migrate south in large numbers every few years from the Boreal Forests of Canada and the Northern U.S., to the point that they were observed in over 50% of the Christmas Bird counts across the U.S. In the late 1980’s however, their population size and ranges suddenly decreased drastically. In our data from the Cache Valley Christmas Bird Count we see this trend echoed with just 3 Evening Grosbeak observed in 1980 jumping to 119 seen the following year. That record was broken again though 2 years later and then shattered in 1987 with 721 Evening Grosbeaks seen on the single count date. The very next year the numbers plummeted with only 5 individuals seen. Numbers have since remained low until 2017 when we saw 282 Evening Grosbeaks. One theory about these dramatic fluctuations in population size and ranges is thought that it mirrors the abundance of their prey, spruce budworms. It is also hypothesized that deforestation and climate change play a role in these fluctuations of their population as well as their prey.

Observing these species and increasing this treasure of data is important for painting a picture of species movement and in addition, how species are responding to a changing climate locally and globally like the Evening Grosbeak. This massive data collection cannot be achieved by only scientists however, the participation of community members, like you and me, is necessary for not only the collection of more accurate data, but also for opening our own eyes to the natural world around us and getting to know the space that we occupy. Birding is a great way to connect to the outdoors and the Christmas Bird Count is the perfect excuse to get outside, especially this winter. Participation can be as simple as watching out your own window, joining a caravan, in separate vehicles this year to maintain social distance, or trekking through the snowy mountains from sunup to sun down. Visit Audubon.org to find a Christmas Bird Count near you to join this historic count.

I am Makenna Johnson with the Bridgerland Audubon Society and I am Wild About Utah!

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy US FWS George Gentry, Photographer
Audio:
Text: Makenna Johnson, Bridgerland Audubon Society and Graduate Student, Quiney College of Natural Resources, Utah State University
Additional Links: Makenna Johnson and Lyle Bingham, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading

Info on Evening Grosbeaks received from:
Evening Grosbeaks, Bird Watching Daily, https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/species-profiles/species-profile-evening-grosbeak/
Evening Grosbeaks, All About Birds, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Evening_Grosbeak/id

Check to see if you live within the count circle, then sign up to count today: Bridgerland Audubon Society, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Greene, Jack, Christmas Bird Count 2019, Wild About Utah, December 9, 2019, https://wildaboututah.org/christmas-bird-count-2019/

Greene, Jack, Cache Valley Christmas Bird Count (CBC) and Climate Change, Wild About Utah, December 11, 2017, https://wildaboututah.org/cache-valley-christmas-bird-count-cbc-climate-change/

Liberatore, Andrea, Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 8, 2014, https://wildaboututah.org/ruffed-grouse-christmas-bird-count/

Cane, James, Kervin, Linda, The Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 9, 2010, https://wildaboututah.org/christmas-bird-count/

Kervin, Linda, The Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 16, 2008, https://wildaboututah.org/the-christmas-bird-count/

Greene, Jack, Climate Change and the Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 12, 2008, https://wildaboututah.org/climate-change-and-the-christmast-bird-count/

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Christmas Bird Count 2019

Christmas Bird Count 2019: Mourning Dove Pair Courtesy Pixabay www.pixabay.com
Mourning Dove Pair
Courtesy Pixabay
www.pixabay.com
On December 14th, I will join several others for an exciting day of counting bird species and numbers in our lovely, snowy valley. The numbers will be entered on a database that will be shared globally.

Count Data:
The data collected by observers over the past 120 years has allowed researchers to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America. When combined with other surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey, it provides a picture of how the continent’s bird populations have changed in time and space. This long term perspective is vital for conservationists. It informs strategists to better protect birds and their habitat, and helps identify environmental issues, with implications for people as well.

The count has special significance for our changing climate’s impact on birds which is disrupting populations and their spacial distribution that are changing at an accelerating rate.

The report:
Audubon’s 2014 Climate Change Report is a comprehensive, first-of-its kind study that predicts how climate change could affect the ranges of 588 North American birds. Of the bird species studied, more than half are likely to be in trouble. The models indicate that 314 species will lose more than half of their current range by 2080. Adding to this, a recent study by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology reported a 29 percent decline in North American bird populations since 1970.

142 species of concern are found in Utah including our state bird, the California gull and our national symbol, the bald eagle. Averaging the most recent 10 years, Cache valley has seen 16 species increase and 11 species decline. Of course we would need a much broader sweep to know the true story of these species, but our data may play a significant part in the overall analysis.

Audubon’s Climate Initiative, encourages its members to take steps to address the climate change threat in their backyards and communities. Visit their website at audubon.org for how to take action.

Many Citizen Science programs exist for families to participate in- https://www.birds.cornell.edu that have generated reams of data over many years showing the species diversity and abundance of birds in North America and globally. Our valley Christmas Bird Count occurs next Saturday, December 14th. Contact bridgerlandaudubon.org for details. Always a good time gathering important data!

And please, keep those bird feeders full as we enter the coldest month of the year!

This is Jack Greene for Wild About Utah.

Christmas Bird Count 2019: Credits:

Images: Courtesy Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/service/license/
Audio: Contains Audio Courtesy and Copyright Kevin Colver
Text:     Jack Greene

Christmas Bird Count 2019: Additional Reading:

Sat, Dec 14, 2019 Logan, Utah Christmas Bird Count, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/save-the-date-sat-dec-14th/

Bridgerland Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count Page, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/our-projects/cache-valley-christmas-bird-count/

Utahbirds.org, 2019 Christmas Bird Count Schedule, (Local) https://utahbirds.org/cbc/cbc.html

National Audubon, Christmas Bird Count, https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count

Greene, Jack, Cache Valley Christmas Bird Count (CBC) and Climate Change, Wild About Utah, December 11, 2017, https://wildaboututah.org/cache-valley-christmas-bird-count-cbc-climate-change/

Kervin, Linda, The Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 16, 2008, https://wildaboututah.org/the-christmas-bird-count/

Cane, James, Kervin, Linda, The Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 9, 2010, https://wildaboututah.org/christmas-bird-count/

Liberatore, Andrea, Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 8, 2014, https://wildaboututah.org/ruffed-grouse-christmas-bird-count/

Greene, Jack, Climate Change and the Christmas Bird Count, Wild About Utah, December 12, 2008, https://wildaboututah.org/climate-change-and-the-christmast-bird-count/