Audubon’s 125th annual Christmas Bird Count kicks off in Gastonia and the Lake Norman area this weekend. Birders will gather in Charlotte and Raleigh the following weekend. From Dec. 14-Jan. 5, volunteers can report their bird sightings to compete with birders across the Western Hemisphere.
Experienced birdwatchers, like Charlotte’s Matthew Withrow, will organize volunteers within their designated area.
“My mom swears up and down that my first word was chickadee — I’m not sure that I believe her or not,” said Withrow, a birder of 10 years.
Withrow is leading the Charlotte count on Saturday, Dec. 21. Birders can report sightings anywhere within a 7.5-mile radius of South Boulevard and East Woodlawn Road in south Charlotte.
The count begins before dawn, when the hoots of owls or gobble of wild turkey can be heard, and continues until 11:59 p.m. that night — when the nighthawk sings its buzzing chirp.
Birdwatching for science
The count serves an auxiliary purpose. The data birders collect during their count helps ornithologists and conservation biologists assess the health of bird populations and guide conservation efforts. Researchers from Cornell University sifted through the data to uncover an unsettling truth: Modern bird populations are roughly one-third what they were in 1970. That represents an estimated loss of 3 billion birds.
All sightings are reported to Withrow. He then uploads them to eBird, an online database where researchers can track bird populations and ranges. This annual snapshot can even tell scientists how birds are responding to climate change.
"Climate change and warmer winters have resulted in birds that — decades ago — would have been spending the winter further south are starting to winter here." said birder Taylor Piephoff, who is organizing the count at southern Lake Norman on December 15.
You don’t have to strap on your hiking boots to participate. Anyone in a designated radius can report a bird sighting to their local bird count organizer.
Look up your local Count organizer here. Reach out to join a volunteer group or report sightings.
