Lazuli Bunting photo By Walter Ammann
The longest running citizen science project in the world, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, starts Friday, and it’s looking for a few thousand volunteers like you.
Excursions are organized around the country by local bird clubs, and anyone can join in to help simply by identifying the birds you spot. The data is gathered and analyzed by the Audubon Society, and it forms real scientific conclusions about the state of bird populations across North America.
The annual State of the Birds report, which this year detailed alarming trends in population loss among dozens of U.S. birds, would not be possible without the thousands of citizen scientists who have participated in projects like the Christmas Bird Count over the years. Last year, more than 58,000 people counted nearly 70-million birds in all 50 states and beyond.
The Christmas Bird Count grew out of a revolution in the way people appreciated birds. It begun in New York Central Park on Christmas Day in 1900, as the American Museum of Natural History scientist Frank Chapman posed an alternative to the traditional holiday “side hunt” (when teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small mammals). Instead, Chapman proposed they “hunt” birds to identify, count, and record their numbers.
The 108th Christmas Bird Count takes place December 14, 2007 to January 5, 2008. For more information go to: The Audubon CBC
Comments on this entry are closed.
We love the Christmas Bird Counts! Wonderful photo of the Lazuli Bunting.