The Sunshine Coast Natural History Society will be conducting their 46th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Saturday, Dec. 14, and the 34th Pender Harbour CBC organized by the Pender Harbour Wildlife Society, is on Wednesday, Dec. 18. Results of these counts will be reported in my next column.
The first Christmas Bird Count was held in New England on Christmas Day 1900 when ornithologist Frank Chapman organized 25 of his friends to spend a day censusing birds as an alternative to the prevailing “sidehunt,” where shooting parties went forth and shot any living thing (birds, squirrels, etc.) and the team with the most dead bodies at the end of the day was declared the winner. We have moved on from that disastrous ethic, and in 2024 the Christmas Bird Count in the U.S. is organized by the Audubon Society, and in Canada by Bird Studies Canada. This year will be the 125th CBC and it is often referred to as the world’s oldest citizen-science project. The accumulated long-term database provides a trove of information concerning the population status of mid-winter birds in the New World.
In 2023, counts were reported in 2,677 circles with 83,000+ participants counting over 41 million birds of 2,380 species. In recent years, the CBC has extended into Central and South America, where species diversity dwarfs that of North America. The highest count in Canada in 2023 was 146 species at Ladner, in North America, 235 species at Matagorda County, Texas, and Sumaco, in the Ecuadoran Amazon was the overall leader with an incredible 412 species.
Every count takes place on one day during a specified period around Christmas, and all are conducted within a circle 15 miles or 24 kms in diameter. The Sunshine Coast circle is centred in Roberts Creek and covers the area from Port Mellon to West Sechelt. Most years the Sunshine Coast count records a species total in the 90s, with a highest ever total of 105 species in 2009. Last year the count was 95 (+ 3 count-week species). The Pender Harbour CBC usually reports 80 to 85 species with a high of 87 in 1993. Last year the Pender count was an abnormally low 72 species (+ 7 count-week) which brought the total back into the traditional range.
In addition to the birds counted on “count-day,” we also tally those species recorded during “count-week” which extends three days before and after the count-day. This year, the Sunshine Coast count period is Dec. 11-17, and for Pender Harbour, Dec. 15-21. If you see any unusual or unidentified birds at your feeder or elsewhere, please contact me so that we can potentially include them in the count. Photographs of any unusual species are especially welcome. You are also welcome to submit counts of birds at your feeder. Contact me at [email protected] or 604-885-5539.
Good Birding.
