In the late nineteenth century, a popular Christmas day activity was participating in a “side hunt,” a competition to see which team of hunters could slaughter as much wildlife as possible. In 1900, Frank Chapman, a concerned naturalist, proposed an alternative. Instead of shooting birds and other animals, why not have teams compete to see how many species of birds they could identify. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was born.
That first count had a total of 27 teams participate, but soon the event, then known as “The Christmas Bird Census,” grew in popularity, and so Chapman decided to standardize the proceedings. Count circles were formed with a diameter of 15 miles. There are currently over 2,600 count circles in the world, with 1,992 of them across the United States. After humble beginnings, the count now draws more than 80,000 participants, and is a great example of citizen science in action.
Besides getting people out in the field, there are two main goals to the count: first and foremost, it is a great way to see how our wintering bird populations are doing. Unsurprisingly, many species are in steep decline, some are holding their own, and a few are actually increasing. A summary of last year’s count can be found here.