Christmas Bird Count

Each local count occurs within a 15-mile diameter circle. Participants count all the birds they can find in the circle within a 24- hour period. In 1904, the first Christmas Bird Count in Virginia was conducted in Accotink by one person who recorded six species. Today nearly 60 CBCs happen each year in Virginia. The same thing happens in every state and many countries as CBCs are held around the world.

The bird census information gathered on all of these counts has become the world’s longest-running database in ornithology and is maintained by the National Audubon Society. Yearly summary reports for Virginia CBCs are published in The Raven. See the archives for The Raven to find these annual historical reports. Until 2018, the yearly CBC summary in The Raven included a massive table listing all of the species and their numbers recorded on every count conducted that year. Beginning with the 2018-19 CBCs, those tables are no longer included with the summary report in The Raven, but are available below.

Results by year:
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23

Participate in a Christmas Bird Count

If you would like to participate in a Virginia Christmas Bird Count near you, the National Audubon Society has a map showing all of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count circles - see that map here. The results for most of these CBCs in Virginia are stored in a data base maintained by Audubon.

Once you have found a nearby count to participate in, contact the Compiler listed for that CBC from the Audubon map. You don’t need to be an expert to participate, and you don’t have to count for the entire day. In fact, if your home is in the count circle, you can even contribute to the local CBC from home by counting the birds at your feeders.

Even if you can only participate in the field or at home for a few hours, your contribution is important!