Audubon’s 120th annual Christmas Bird Count began earlier this week and will run through early next year.
The event, being held from Dec. 14 through Jan. 5, is the longest-running, citizen science survey in the world. It essentially checks the pulse of our ecosystem. Information gathered helps scientists get an update on what birds are where and how their numbers are doing in different parts of the country.
There is no cost to participate and a quarterly report, American Birds, will be available online with the results. Birders, nature enthusiasts and others in communities across the country take part. Audubon New York staff and volunteers are leading Christmas Bird Counts across the state with registration now open for all events.
Each individual count is performed in a county circle with a diameter of 15 miles. At least 10 volunteers, including a compiler to coordinate the process, count in each circle. The volunteers break up in to small parties and follow assigned routes, which change little from year to year. They count every bird they see. In most county circles, some people also watch feeders instead of following routes.
Black Capped Chickadee at Beaver Lake Nature Center. Dick Blume/The Post Standard
Some counts have already been conducted.
Alyssa Johnson, an environmental educator with the Montezuma Audubon Center in Savannah in Wayne County, said a count was conducted Dec. 16 in the greater Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Close to 50 volunteers participated and 75 different bird species were identified.
She said her group alone spotted seven bald eagles.
Want to participate in the count? Go to the Audubon website to see a map of circles in areas expected to be included this year. Check out the map to find a count near you. More circles will be added as they are approved.
Green and yellow circles are open for new participants, and red circles are full. Online registration is not available. Please contact compilers by email using the information from the pop-ups on the map.
For more, see the Audubon website.
Research using data collected from past Christmas Bird Counts and other sources show bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970, according to an article in scientificamerican.com.
Though waterfowl and raptor populations have made recoveries, bird populations have declined across nearly all habitats, the article said. Grassland-dwelling birds such as sparrows and meadowlarks have been hit especially hard due to intensive agricultural practices and uses of pesticides.
“Shorebirds—which nest in areas particularly susceptible to development and climate change and whose numbers were already dangerously low in 1970—have declined by more than a third,” the article said.
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