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Each year in late December, more than 50,000 birders across North America participate in Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count, the world’s longest-running database in ornithology. First conducted in 1900, the Christmas Bird Count is a daylong census of bird populations. Each local count occurs within a 15-mile diameter circle. Participants count all the birds they can find within the circle in a 24-hour period.

You don’t need to be an expert to participate, and you don’t have to count for the entire day. Even if you can participate for only a few hours, your contribution is welcome and important.

In any given year, there are about 50 Christmas Bird Counts in Washington, ranging from the mouth of the Columbia River to Colville, and from Pullman to Bellingham. Contact your nearest Audubon chapter, or your local Christmas Bird Count compiler listed by the Washington Ornithological Society.

Frank Chapman organized the first Christmas Bird Count in 1900

The results of National Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count represent more than 100 years of continuous data on trends of early-winter bird populations across the Americas. These- data – records of nearly 70,000 individual Christmas Bird Counts from Dec. 25, 1900 through today – are now on-line, available for ready access and analysis. See for yourself the local, regional, and continental trends of various species.