The 2024 Christmas Bird Count results had many surprising results, despite the unusually warm weather. With the help from 1,390 field participants (“bush beaters”), who collectively spent 2,300 hours on foot and traversed 20,000 kilometres, as well as 665 volunteers who spent a collective 1,100 hours watching from their bird feeders, they found surprising results. Some findings of this count were higher species counts such as the 2,407 Gray Partridges (compared to the previous record in 1989/90 of 1,063), 18,314 Snow Buntings (compared to last year’s 1,437), and Bald Eagle numbers reaching a new all-time high of 368 and reaching triple digits for the first time in twenty years (which is a major conservation success). If you would like to volunteer, visit Nature Alberta to find contact details about local count circles, you can find the information here: https://naturealberta.ca/christmas-bird-count/.
Collaborators: Nature Alberta, Birds Canada
To see the full database, check out the results here: https://netapp.audubon.org/CBCObservation/