The 125th Christmas Bird Count in Oregon

      Oregon held 45 counts this year. The only new count was the long-awaited McNary- Hermiston count, discussed below. Among recent counts, Coos Bay, long the highest in the state with peaks around 160, has not been held for several years. Hood River, Reedsport and Santiam Pass are inactive and Hart Mountain was not held this year owing to weather.

      Coastal counts found the largest number of species, as usual, with Coquille Valley the highest this season at 142 and Tillamook Bay and Yaquina Bay right behind at 140 and 139, respectively. Among western interior counts, Eugene found 138 species and Sauvie Island 125 (both have significant open water), while Medford in the drier Rogue Valley located 127, a very good variety for interior southern Oregon. East of the Cascades, Klamath Falls found a solid 110 and the new McNary-Hermiston count on the upper Columbia River an excellent 103 in its first official year.

      This year observer turnout was generally good, but the higher turnout tended to be on counts that already have plenty of observers. Even one additional team at low-turnout counts like Oakridge or Port Orford could make a big difference. Granted, some such locations are a long way from where observers live, but some are within an hour’s drive. I hope that observers consider helping counts that have lower turnouts. Coverage at Yaquina Bay and Florence in particular has improved in recent years.

What, Where and Why

      Counts in interior Oregon vary considerably in two key factors, turnout and access to large bodies of water. East of the Cascades the limited availability of unfrozen water is a factor in most years; this year remarkably warm, wet conditions in the eastern highlands resulted in unusually high species variety. Open water held late waterfowl and semi-hardy wetland birds, e.g. Sora and Greater Yellowlegs. Warm-weather teal are very rare in eastern Oregon in winter; this year two Blue-winged were at John Day, two Cinnamon at Summer Lake and four Blue-winged/Cinnamon at Pine Valley, no doubt taking advantage of unfrozen habitat.

      Icing on the east-side waterfowl cake appeared in the form of a Tundra Bean-Goose at the Baker CBC in far eastern Oregon. This bird appeared December 6 with other geese, wandered off for a while and was relocated on count day by compiler Sean Cozart. This was a fourth Oregon state record and a second record for any North American CBC. Four Vaux’s Swift at Sauvie Island were a first for an Oregon CBC, as were a remarkable White Wagtail at Tillamook Bay (like the Bean-Goose, it had been reported several weeks earlier and reappeared on the CBC) and a female Vermilion Flycatcher (Oregon’s 9th), which wintered near Port Orford. The state thus added four new species to its all-time CBC list.

      A good year for holdovers, rarities and wintering semi-hardy birds included Black-and-White Warbler and Tennessee Warbler within two blocks of each other at Coquille Valley (both wintered). Other notables included Western Tanager in Portland, Hooded Oriole at Yaquina Bay, two Bullocks’s Orioles and a Black-headed Grosbeak at Coquille Valley, a wintering Blue Jay at Tygh Valley, Yellow Warbler at Tillamook Bay, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Roseburg and Tropical Kingbird, rare after late November, at Columbia Estuary. Two other coastal counts had one for count week. December records have been more frequent in recent years.

      Salem had its first count record of Turkey Vulture, which has become fairly regular in sw Oregon, with a winter roost of several dozen at Eugene in recent decades. This would have been considered a rare bird as recently as the 1980s but Eugene had 76 and Coquille Valley (16) set a new count record this year. Two Common Yellowthroat at Sauvie Island tied the previous highs, mostly in the Portland area. A Nashville Warbler, semi-regular on the southern Oregon coast in winter, was further north than usual at Yaquina Bay, as were a Hermit Warbler and a Northern Mockingbird. A Ferruginous Hawk at Columbia Estuary was a very unusual coastal record. Several Green Heron were in the Willamette Valley, where they are irregular in winter, including three at Cottage Grove. A Lark Sparrow at Lincoln City stayed in the same seaside area for weeks, out of range, season and customary habitat. Two Snowy Egrets at Eugene had been around for a while. Four Long-tailed Ducks at Wallowa County was remarkable in any season, particularly in a year when very few appeared on the outer coast, letting an interior montane count have the state high for the species this year, an odd outcome.

      Notable high counts included 20 Cinnamon Teal at Coquille Valley and 19 at Forest Grove. Several occurred elsewhere; this species seems to be on a slow increase in winter. Six N. Saw-whet Owls at Airlie is high for a recent CBC, though the species is common. Owling seems to have dropped off as a CBC activity in recent years. Seventeen Orange-crowned Warblers at Coquille Valley exceeded the previous all-time state record of 15, set only in 2012 at Eugene, and several were east of the Cascades. Say’s Phoebe, an irregular winter bird outside the Rogue Valley forty years ago, has become almost standard in much of southwestern Oregon. This year nine west-side counts found it, with most birds in the Rogue Valley but singles scattered elsewhere. There were plenty of Short-eared Owls, with major roosts at Brownsville (40) and Sauvie Island (20) and eight at Eugene and Corvallis. Bewick’s Wren, unknown in northeastern Oregon fifty years ago, is now well-established, as 44 at McNary-Hermiston and 22 in Union County show.

      Pine Siskin staged a large incursion, with over 22,000 reported and birds on 35 counts. Many counts had hundreds and eight, all in western Oregon, had over a thousand. Red Crossbills were also widespread, but only the outer coastal counts and Sunriver had significant numbers.

      A few counts reported Barn Swallow, as usual in recent decades, and Eugene also had a remarkable 23 Tree Swallows. Forest Grove and Sauvie Island also reported Tree Swallow. This species has a poorly understood seasonal pattern in which most birds leave by the end of summer but it is then the most frequently reported and usually commonest winter swallow in sw Oregon, though Barn is catching up. Do these birds come from northerly sites, arriving late, or have they started seeping northward by late December?

      Marbled Murrelet is rarely common on CBCs but the paltry two in the whole state this year is surprising. Eurasian Wigeon were widespread, including three counts east of the Cascades, but numbers were low. Harris’s Sparrow is rare-but-regular as a winter bird; this year it was only rare on CBCs, with one at McNary-Hermiston and a Count Week bird in Union County. Even east of the Cascades, Northern Shrike made an anemic showing, and very few reached the western interior valleys. No coastal count found any. Finally, in the oddities department, six Mute Swans of unknown origin spent the winter around Eugene, mostly at Fern Ridge Reservoir.

Species Going Away?

      Ring-necked Pheasant has become a fading memory in western Oregon, with a high of 13 at Eugene this year probably including recently introduced birds. Next highest in the Willamette Valley was four at Dallas, where half the circle is plausible pheasant habitat. In western Oregon, only three other counts had any at all. The entire state reported 222, of which 40% came from Umatilla County. Outside a few pockets of mostly lowland eastern Oregon, only 36 were reported. It is unclear that this introduced and widely-stocked species is a self-sustaining population outside the upper Columbia agricultural lowlands. That said, southeastern Oregon does not have many counts per square mile, and some of that is good pheasant habitat, particularly in Malheur County, which does not have any active counts.

      The slow withdrawal of Rock Sandpiper as a wintering species in the past thirty years showed up in the CBC results this year: a single bird on the entire coast, at Lincoln City. I have not seen one in coastal Lane County at all since 2008. Surfbird may be on a similar track, as they have become harder to find in recent years on the southern half of the coast. This year none were on CBCs south of Yaquina Bay, which only had two.

Once and Future Counts

      The McNary-Hermiston count was organized by Eric Pratt, a college student who conducted a “test run” in 2023. Most remarkable, and an indicator of why this count was needed, is that it set three all-time Oregon high counts in its first year: 12,678 Snow Goose, 1,395 White-crowned Sparrow and 253 Yellow-headed Blackbird, the latter a species that is usually hard to find in winter, with a few in the sw interior. In addition to the record-setting highs, the six Burrowing Owls wintering in human-constructed habitat at a military reservation was the highest in Oregon since Medford had 12 in 1960 in habitat that is largely nonexistent now. The 5,865 Lesser Scaup was the highest since Eugene’s 7000 in 1965, the old record presumably an estimate (with period optics) of what was on Fern Ridge Reservoir. This new circle covers a variety of habitats including McNary Dam state wildlife area and Cold Springs NWR.

      What does the future hold for Oregon CBCs? Ideally, Coos Bay and Santiam Pass need to be restarted, as they represent areas with huge numbers of birds and unique montane habitat, respectively. The biggest real gap in habitat coverage is the Snake-Malheur-Payette River confluence in Malheur County, Oregon and Payette County, Idaho. Like McNary-Hermiston, it is a relatively low-elevation site known to have significant waterfowl, raptors and unique populations such as wintering Great-tailed Grackles. Of previous circles in that part of Oregon, Vale did not reach the Snake and Lower Owyhee barely did. A count centered near Ontario, probably with a large Idaho component, is needed. I drew a circle in case anyone is tempted. Perhaps some energetic birders will look at these projects.

All-time Oregon high counts set on the 2024-25 CBC*

Species in bold are new for Oregon CBCs

* note – the database for Oregon high counts contains a few errors and will be updated in spring, 2026 after the current count season data is all entered.