It’s a Good Time to Count Birds

By now most of the migratory birds have settled down where they will spend the winter, joining residents for a lively season.

For the annual National Audubon Society bird count, teams of volunteers will spread out and record all the birds they see on a particular day in late December or early January. Their compiled reports will provide valuable information about year-to-year changes in resident bird populations, as well as numbers and types of seasonal visitors. Anyone can join in and help with the counting! The goals are to learn more about the birds sharing our habitats, and to gather information that can help support and protect vulnerable birds.

Some of the migratory birds in the Western Hemisphere make long trips from their northern nesting grounds, often in Canada or Alaska, down to their wintering spots in the Caribbean, or further on into Central and South America. Their trips can become more perilous due to adverse weather conditions, rising sea levels along shorelines, and changes in land use at the places they stop to rest, or at their final destinations.