Join us for the 2015 Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season. Counts will begin on Saturday, December 19, 2015 and run through Sunday, January 3, 2016. Come out and take part in this important Citizen Science work. To find and participate in a CBC near you, select here for the full 2015-2016 Connecticut Schedule. To view data results on any CBC, select here.
About the Annual Christmas Bird Count
The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is the longest running Citizen Science project in the world. Started in 1899 as a way of encouraging people to count birds instead of shoot them, the CBC takes place each year from mid-December to early January when thousands of volunteer birders contribute to the long-term study of early winter bird populations across North America. Count captains in each local area coordinate volunteers for their respective "count circles," and count birds (both number of species and number of individuals) throughout a 24-hour period.
CBC participants range from expert ornithologists to beginning birders, following established protocols to ensure consistent data collection. The data from each count circle is tabulated and submitted to the National Audubon Society, to be used by scientists in a wide variety of studies. To date, more than 200 peer-reviewed articles have resulted from analysis done with Christmas Bird Count data, which has also been used by U.S. Federal agencies as an important basis for making decisions about birds.
