Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Reader Contribution by Earth Gauge
Published on December 11, 2013
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Every year, thousands of volunteers identify and count birds during Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The annual count – which is in its 114th year – helps researchers, conservation biologists and others study North American bird populations over time. What have they learned?

Winter bird ranges are shifting. Audubon’s Birds & Climate Change analysis shows that from 1966-2005 – a 40-year period when the average January temperature in the lower 48 states rose by over 5 degrees Fahrenheit – 58 percent of observed bird species shifted their ranges north. Sixty species shifted their ranges by more than 100 miles. The U.S. EPA included these range shifts as one of 26 Climate Change Indicators in the United States.

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