For the 79th year since 1900, New Brunswickers will soon be participating in another Christmas Bird Count (CBC).  Now covering much of the Americas, about 1000 New Brunswickers from all over the province usually participate in this long-running citizen science project.  Newcomers of all skill levels are always welcome.  If you don’t know the birds well you can be matched up with someone who does.  Spotting the birds is as important as identifying them because the purpose of the CBC is to count not just the number of species but the number of individuals of each species.  2024 CBC participants reported 158,000 birds from 133 species who were accompanying us through the dark days of winter.  Many areas of New Brunswick now have more than 50 years of data making it possible to discern population trends.

Find a survey area near you using the Birds Canada map.  Christmas Bird Count – Birds Canada | Oiseaux Canada  Or contact Nature NB to be put in contact with a count circle compiler in your area.

As an indicator of what you may see, the results from all 48 of New Brunswick’s 2024 Christmas Bird Counts are now available on the Nature NB website. NB Christmas Bird Counts – Nature NB

Half of the birds (around 80,000 individuals) were from just four species that broke the 10,000 mark: European Starling, Herring Gull, Black-capped Chickadee, and American Crow.  Perfect attendance in all 48 count areas was achieved by just by two species this year – Black-capped Chickadee and Blue Jay. Hairy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Nuthatch at 47 and Common Raven at 46 were close.  But there were summer lingerers like six Belted Kingfishers, three Baltimore Orioles, four Common Yellowthroat and five Northern Mockingbirds.  Plus winter visitors that we may not have seen since the last CBC – 61 Bohemian Waxwings from seven count areas, Glaucous and Iceland Gulls from 11 and 22 count areas respectively, three Snowy Owls from three separate areas, 2237 Snow Buntings from 31 areas and almost 10,000 “winter finches” (including grosbeaks, crossbills and siskins) widely spread as usual, but especially prevalent in the boreal forest areas of the province.