NB Naturalist Feature: The 2023 Christmas Bird Count in New Brunswick
By Allison & Donald MacPhail
About 1000 people participated in 48 Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) all over New Brunswick in December 2023 and early 2024.
We spent 1750 hours (equivalent to more than two-hundred 8-hour days) covering 1100 km on foot and 13,000 km by car in search of wintertime birds. Count Day temperatures averaged -2ºC at the start and +1 ºC at the end so most count areas had at least some open water.
By the end of it, we had found 126,000 birds from 139 species plus another two species during each of Count Week and Count Period for a total of 141 species. This is the lowest number of individuals since 2015, but only one less than last year’s recent high of 140 species.
There are more numbers. Species seen on:
- All 48 counts; zero – there were no species found on every count
- 47 counts; our provincial bird, the Black capped Chickadee
- 46 counts; Common Raven
- 45 counts; Blue Jay, European Starling
- 44 counts Downy Woodpecker, American Crow, Red-breasted Nuthatch
- 43 counts; Rock Pigeon, Hairy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch
- 42 counts; Mourning Dove
Other widely seen species included 310 Bald Eagles on 40 counts and Dark-eyed Juncos on 39 counts. More than half of the counts found American Robins for a total of over 200.
As far as “waterbirds”, the most widely reported were Black Duck and Herring Gull (32 counts) and Mallard (31 counts). Common Goldeneye were close at 29 counts.
For some larger numbers, we found:
- 70,000 geese, ducks, mergansers, grebes and loons
- 16,000 gulls
- 12,000 waxwings and finches (only two island counts – Ile Miscou and Machias Seal Island found no finches or waxwings)
- 3000 sparrows from 14 species if you count House Sparrow, Snow Bunting, larkspurs and pipits
- 8 species of warbler including a Yellow-breasted Chat
- 5 species of owl
- And the first Atlantic Puffin and Northern Fulmar that have been seen on a CBC in a few years – both on Machias Seal Island, where a “true Christmas Bird Count” is done on Christmas Day whenever Ralph Eldridge is on the island.
This was the 77th year and 68th consecutive year that at least one Christmas Bird Count was undertaken in New Brunswick. The 77th year compared to last year’s “75th year” is due to the rediscovery of a CBC on Grand Manan in 1908, reported in The Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society. Nature NB’s website has the story on that count.
Twenty count areas now have more than 50 years of data; another 19 have 30 or more. For the second year in a row, all counts posted their data to Audubon where New Brunswick’s counts represent the most densely covered province in Canada.
Not to say that this provincial compilation is without the errors that are likely inherent in any dataset with thousands of manually input data points. It has however been compiled, using compiler reports when available, the Audubon data and a final compiler review, especially of any inconsistencies that were found between reports. It is felt to be the most accurate representation of the 2023 Christmas Bird Count in New Brunswick. Many thanks to all who participated in acquiring the data and especially to the 48 compilers and Nature NB for their efforts and support.
The results from all 2300 of New Brunswick’s historical Christmas Bird Counts, going back to the first New Brunswick CBC in 1900, are available through the Nature NB website. Results are in the form of PDF files as initially published. All results are also available in digital format, suitable for analysis, upon request.
Finally, if you are interested in assisting with the upgrade of the digital format data, into a searchable database, please contact Nature NB. The data, now available in digital format, has rarely been accessed since it was all acquired; more than 6.5 million birds must have a few stories to tell us.
