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Good Birding: It’s time for the Christmas Bird Count

Last year’s Christmas Bird Count enumerated 89 species
Tony Greenfield
C. Great Horned Owl (Getty Images) resized
The great horned owl is a species regularly found on the Sunshine Coast but it isn’t usually found in the Christmas Bird Counts. In 2021, it was one of the 78 species spotted between Port Mellon and West Sechelt on Dec. 19. (This photo is not that owl.)Tom Applegate / Getty Images photo

The Sunshine Coast Natural History Society will be conducting its 45th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Saturday, Dec. 16, and the 33rd Pender Harbour CBC organized by the Pender Harbour Wildlife Society, is on Wednesday, Dec. 20. 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. Fortunately, we have moved on from that disastrous ethic, and in 2023 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 124th 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 2022, counts were reported in 2,625 circles with 79,000+ participants counting over 40 million birds of 2,244 species. The highest count in Canada was 137 species at Victoria; in North America, 218 species at Mad Island, Texas; and Mindo-Tandayapa in Ecuador was the overall leader with 354 species. 

Every count takes place on one day during a specified period around Christmas, and all are conducted within a circle 24 kilometres, 15 miles, 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 89 (+ 5 count-week species). The Pender Harbour CBC usually reports 80 to 85 species with a high of 87 in 1993 and last year recorded 78 (+ 6 count-week species). 

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.13 to 19, and for Pender Harbour, Dec. 17 to 23. 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.