News Release

The 2020 Annual Christmas Bird Count to be held on December 26th

Boy Birding at the Christmas Bird Count in 2012

NPS/Patrick Myers

News Release Date: December 11, 2020

Contact: Dewane Mosher, [phone]

Birders and nature enthusiasts in the San Luis Valley will join birders across the western hemisphere to participate in Audubon's longest-running wintertime tradition, the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), held at Great Sand Dunes National Park on Saturday, December 26 at 8:00 a.m. Birders of all skill levels are welcome to participate. The park is also looking for those within the count circle who have bird feeders to join in the fun, as well.

Due to social distancing guidelines related to the ongoing pandemic, participants will receive route assignments in advance and be requested to upload data through a website. In order to participate in the bird count within Great Sand Dunes, participants must be signed up as volunteers. Interested individuals should contact Dewane Mosher no later than December 18, 2020 to receive volunteer paperwork. Volunteer paperwork must be fully completed and submitted to the park by December 23, 2020. Upon completion of paperwork, the park will provide a map of your assigned area, and instructions for returning count results to the compiler. Dewane Mosher can be reached at [e-mail].

Volunteers will have their park entrance fee waived for that day only. Birders of all skill levels are invited and encouraged to participate. For more information on the bird count, direct inquiries and questions to Dewane Mosher, park biologist, via email at: [e-mail]

The longest running citizen science survey in the world, Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count takes place nationwide in late December each year. Tens of thousands of volunteers throughout North America brave winter weather to add a new layer to over a century of data.

The Christmas Bird Count began over a century ago when 27 conservationists in 25 localities changed the course of ornithological history. On Christmas Day in 1900, the small group posed an alternative to the “side hunt,” a Christmas day activity in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small mammals. Instead, it was proposed that they identify, count, and record all the birds they saw, founding what is now considered to be the world's most significant citizen-based conservation effort – and a more than century-old institution. The CBC is vital in monitoring the status of resident and migratory birds across the Western Hemisphere, and the data, which are 100% volunteer generated, have become a crucial part of the U.S. Government’s natural history monitoring database.

Please go to the Audubon website for additional information, news, and history on the Christmas Bird Count: https://audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count.

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