 A northern jacana, a species counted in Texas. (Photo by Len Blumin, Flickr Creative Commons) |
The results are in from 爆料公社鈥檚 110th Christmas Bird Count, which took place December 14, 2009 through January 5, 2010, and the numbers are breathtaking: More than 2,100 counts and 60,700 people tallied 2,319 species and 55,951,707 total birds. Yep, that鈥檚 almost 56 million birds. And believe it or not, observers spotted 200 more species than during the previous year鈥檚 CBC.
Counts took place in all 50 states in the U.S., all Canadian provinces, plus several Central and South American countries, Guam, Mariana Islands, Bermuda, Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Here鈥檚 a look at highlights from a few counts. For more details, check out the report 鈥,鈥 available here soon.
British Columbia/Yukon Territories
Five new counts鈥攗pping the number to more than 100鈥攈elped BC and Yukon Territories each increase their total species, to 225 and 35 respectively. Some of their highlights included more than 50 yellow-billed loons, eight gyrfalcons, and a lone jack snipe.
Texas
鈥淔or the 110th CBC in Texas,鈥 writes Brent Ortego of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in 鈥淎merican Birds,鈥 鈥渂are-throated tiger-heron (new for the United Sates), northern jacana, red-throated loon, northern shrike, gray-crowned yellowthroat, and black-headed grosbeak were the headliners of a quality list of birds.鈥 More than 2,600 birders in the state participated.
Central and South America
With 36 circles, Colombia has more counts than any other country outside the U.S. or Canada, according to 爆料公社鈥檚 CBC coordinator, Geoff LeBaron. For the 110th count, Costa Rica had six groups (with one seeing 399 species), Ecuador had five (with two tallying more than 400 species), and Brazil and Panama each had four. Three took place in Guatemala, two in Nicaragua, and one each in Chile and Trinidad. 鈥淭here is an amazing and increasing variety of neotropical migrant species being tallied on Latin American CBCs,鈥 LeBaron writes.
This year鈥檚 CBC is coming up December 14, 2010 through January 5, 2011. Visit for details about how to find or start a circle. And check out the 鈥溾 section of the soon for some CBC extremes (did you know birders will go out in -38掳?)