Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count Tallying the birds of the Americas for over a century

Feather hats were the rage

Frank Chapman, bird curator at the American Museum of Natural History, and an officer of the National Audubon Society

The Christmas Bird Count...built on tradition Armand Bayou, Texas © Gary Seloff Concord, Massachusetts © Hilary Wood Loma Alta, Ecuador © Dusti Becker Northampton, Massachusetts © Geoff LeBaron

How is the Christmas Bird Count run? Where: 15-mile diameter circle What: All birds species and individuals seen or heard are counted. Also recorded are weather details, number of counters, the hours and miles spent counting When: One 24-hour period from December 14 - January 5 How: Observers count on foot, by car, by boat, by snowmobile, watching feeders, and owling. All data are reported to compilers who consolidate data and enter into database. Regional editors review and confirm all data.

Each circle is divided into sectors

Over 60,000 participants 20 countries 2242 circles Over 64,900,000 birds reported 2,400 species As of 2012 the Christmas Bird Count…. Western Gull © Larry Seligman

The Citizen Scientists Concord, Massachusetts CBC © Hilary Wood Mindo, Ecuador © Greg Butcher

Christmas Bird Count Partners

First among citizen science projects - the Christmas Bird Count Prothonotary Warbler © Dominic Sherony Monarch Butterflies during migration U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Iris Versicolor © Evelyn Simak, CC-SA-2 Other citizen science projects include: eBird The Great Backyard Bird Count BioBlitz The National Phenology Network North American Butterfly Count Water Quality Monitoring

What have we learned about how birds are doing from the Christmas Bird Count?

Bewick’s Wren © Cindy Chow

© Linda Huffman American Crow

Rusty Blackbird © Ashok Khosla

Harris’s Sparrow © Nic Allen

© Wilber Suiter Bald Eagle – an indicator of environmental health

Changes in the Winter Ranges of Birds

Why should we care about the status of birds? People love birds Birds are valuable Birds are indicators We know a lot about birds Volunteers count birds In many cases, we can reverse bird population declines

The Conservation Value of the Christmas Bird Count is evident in the many projects resulting from use of these data

The Christmas Bird Count also shows the value of citizen science In the 106th Christmas Bird Count there was a total of 292,000 hours spent counting birds by all participants. At $16.54 per hour + 12% fringe = $5,405,907 or this is equal to 146 full time employees If you add the cost of miles traveled during the count: 575,000 miles * IRS rates = $ This results in a $5,615,764 value to the work of bird conservation by citizen scientists in that one year! (Niven, 2006)

Audubon’s future projects with Christmas Bird Count data Audubon California’s Mapping Avian Responses to Climate Change in California, 2009) CBC circles along the Gulf Coast

Christmas Bird Count history and data will inform Audubon’s future bird conservation work.

Barred Owl by Kenneth Cantley We wish you Good Birding!