By Nick Minnich, Houston Audubon Coastal Conservation Technician
More than a century of community science efforts has provided researchers, conservation biologists, and wildlife agencies with valuable data related to the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America. While originating as an alternative to the popular Christmas “Side Hunt,” this community science event has become the most famous, long-running avian census in the world. Read on to learn more about the Christmas Bird Count!
The year is 1900 and the wildlife conservation movement is growing, garnering more support across the nation. Early conservation champions like Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir found the Boone and Crockett Club and Sierra Club respectively. The first state Audubon societies have recently been formed and hundreds of sportsmen’s organizations are created with a commitment to conservation; however, hundreds of thousands of birds are being harvested each year for the feather trade and the last Passenger Pigeons are being hunted to extinction. It’s with this in mind that “Dean of American Ornithologists” Frank Chapman proposed “a new kind of Christmas side hunt.” Chapman’s innovative, fresh idea to count all birds present in a particular area during the Christmas holiday attracted twenty-seven birders in the first year across twenty-five different locations. 90 species were tallied.
Of course, a lot has changed since those twenty-seven conservation trailblazers initiated the first Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in 1900. The 124th CBC was held from December 14, 2023 – January 5, 2024 and was nothing short of record-breaking in terms of participation. 2,677 counts were completed and an all-time high of 83,186 participants counted birds. 40,871,030 individual birds were counted across 2,380 species. The species and abundance totals for each CBC from 1901 – present have been compiled into a database and are viewable on the National Audubon Society website.
This Christmas, we encourage our Houston Audubon community members to join this great community science movement and count birds during the holiday season. To get involved, you can get started by visiting our website. In Frank Chapman’s words, “[W]e hope that all our readers who have the opportunity will aid us in making it a success by spending a portion of Christmas Day with the birds and sending a report of their hunt… before they retire that night.”
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