The 116th CBC in Belize and Mexico

In 2015-16 during the 116^th CBC season the following bird counts were undertaken in five circles in Belize and 33 circles and 16 different States in Mexico.

A total of 116 people from Belize participated and 354 from Mexico. This gives an average of 29 people per circle in Belize and an average of 11 in Mexico.  An impressive amount of species were reported in total.

New circles appeared this year, such as those from Campeche, Puebla, and Colima.  Tagged birds with flag bands were reported, such as a Piping Plover in Yucatan, and also some rare species such as Tropical Kingbird in Cumbres de Monterrey, Nuevo Leon; Rufous-backed Robin in Sonora; a Gray Catbird that chose to spend winter in Sonora in northern Mexico, which is very rare for this time of year; and oh, one very strange Muscovy Duck in Baja California Sur. Also, several counts tallied numbers high above average such as the 25,000 Sinaloa Crows reported in el Yugo, Sinaloa.

There was also a nice initiative on the part of Yucatan to involve children and get them interested in participating in the Christmas Bird Count.  The place where the highest number of species were found was once again, San Blas, Nayarit, with 285 species, though this year they did not report Purple Sandpiper.  The second place went to Belmopan in Belize with 246 species.  Though high species totals are always fun for participants, the idea is not just to find the greatest number of species possible, but rather to record the numbers of what there is in each specific region. With the combined efforts of everyone together, it will allow us to have an idea of the bird population trends over a long period of time.

A thousand thanks to everyone who participated and we will meet again for the upcoming 117th Christmas Bird Count.