What Scientists Have Learned From 125 Years Of Bird Counts

IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow. This winter marks the 125th anniversary of Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, when bird nerds across the Western hemisphere trek out into the cold to record all the birds they see and hear. Scientists get to use all that data to understand how birds are faring, where they’re moving, and what they’re up to when it’s not breeding season. With 125 years under its belt, the Christmas Bird Count is the longest-running community science program in the world.

So how do scientists use this data? And what have they learned in those 125 years? That’s what we’re going to talk about with my guest, Dr. Brooke Bateman, senior director of Climate and Community Science at the National Audubon Society in Stony Brook, New York, and Doctor Janet Ng, wildlife biologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada in Regina, Canada. Welcome both of you to Science Friday.

JANET NG: Thanks for having us.

BROOKE BATEMAN: It’s great to be here. Thanks for having us.

IRA FLATOW: You’re welcome. Brooke, let’s take a trip in the wayback machine. I mean, how did the Bird Count start over a century ago?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Yeah, it’s a pretty cool story. So back in 1900, Frank Chapman decided that the traditional Christmas hunt was not the best idea. And he went and encouraged people in a newsletter called Bird Lore to go out and do a Christmas census or go out and count birds instead and really was hopeful that folks would take this on board. And a few folks did. So the first year we had 27 individuals from 25 different locations that decided to count birds instead go hunting around the Christmas time period.

IRA FLATOW: And about how many do you have now?

BROOKE BATEMAN: We have over 80,000 volunteers that participate across the entire Western hemisphere, so it’s grown substantially since 1900.

IRA FLATOW: [LAUGHS] OK, Janet, tell me what you did for the Bird Count this year.

JANET NG: Oh yeah. Thanks for asking. We’ve been going out every year to do the Craven Christmas Bird Count. So that’s just a few minutes North of Regina. And we get two areas, two territories, to go stake out and go drive and walk around.

And yeah, we took some friends. We packed a lot of snacks and went looking for birds. This group was a few different biologists packed into a truck, and I’d have to say it was probably pretty intense. It was pretty intense.

It was like, there are nine gray partridges 3 o’clock to the East there. And stop the vehicle. Pause. Everybody take a look.

I was the designated scribe, which I don’t want to underestimate how important that task is. And so, yeah, I had the little notebook and pencil, and I kept track of what everybody saw. So yeah, it was a pretty serious group.

But honestly, it can be anybody who’s interested. And that’s the beautiful part about Christmas bird counts. It’s the opportunity to see something new, learn something new and, yeah, hang out with some probably very nerdy bird people.

IRA FLATOW: Now, I understand that this can get pretty competitive, right?

JANET NG: I’d have to say, there’s probably a little bit more trash talking by text messaging now than there probably was in 1900.

IRA FLATOW: [LAUGHS]

JANET NG: And I’d say that’s good motivation for, I guess, for some of us who work that way, yeah.

IRA FLATOW: Right. And so tell me what the coolest bird you saw this year.

JANET NG: Ooh, good question. So we started off strong, and we were looking at a sharp-tailed grouse sitting in a field. And then we noticed a bald eagle actually come zoom in and check it out. The sharp-tailed grouse wasn’t going to have anything to do with it, and the bald eagle thought better in that moment. But it was still really neat to see, like two beautiful birds and just a wonderful natural interaction out on a really lovely Saturday.

IRA FLATOW: That’s cool. And you, Brooke, what was your plan like?

BROOKE BATEMAN: I do the Christmas Bird Count every year with my daughter. I’ve been doing it with her since she’s three. She’s now 10.

So we go out, the two of us, in our local area, our part of the sector and cover our area. And it’s just a fun way to spend the day and get her to recognize and identify the birds. So I always find it as an enjoyable experience, and as Janet said, it’s just an opportunity for anybody to join.

It doesn’t have to be just seasoned birders. It can be children. It can be newbies. Definitely a lot of opportunities there.

IRA FLATOW: Was there any bird that you were really hoping to see going into your Bird Count?

BROOKE BATEMAN: I think the thing about the Christmas Bird Count is that it’s the opportunity of what you see that particular day. I mean, obviously, you want to make sure you’re getting the regulars that you see everywhere because we really want to get a good idea of the birds that are in that particular circle over time. But I mean, if there’s a rare bird in the area, it’s always exciting to try to find it.

I’m always happy to try to get the owls. I think, for me, owls and the weird winter ducks are my two favorite hits.

IRA FLATOW: You can see owls during the day?

BROOKE BATEMAN: I mean, you can, but a lot of folks do an owling component of the Christmas Bird Count, where they actually wake up early to hear the birds calling. So obviously, seeing a bird is a big part of Christmas Bird Count, but there’s other ways that you can identify birds, including hearing their calls.

IRA FLATOW: Can you give me an owl call?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Oh, yes, I can. I can. Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all? That’s the barn owl.

[LAUGHTER]

JANET NG: I thought it was here with us in the room. That was wonderful, Dr. Bateman.

BROOKE BATEMAN: Thank you. I’m not one of those people that can actually sound like an owl, but I can do the mnemonics.

IRA FLATOW: That’s good. And, Janet, I know you’re a scientist. Why is this data so important to scientists?

JANET NG: Well, we’ve seen Christmas Bird Count data used in so many studies now. And the importance of this long-term data set, literally the longest in the world, starting from 1900, there’s nothing else like it that exists.

And so having a long data set over a large Geographic area, all of Saskatchewan, all of Canada, United States, that gives us so much data to work with, so we can look at species trends over continents but also regional trends, too, what’s happening more locally. There’s just a lot of opportunities, and people have really used it to its full extent, I think. Or actually, you know what? I think we’re not at the full extent yet. There’s more to come.

IRA FLATOW: Is it helpful that this Bird Count is done in the winter versus another season?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Well, I think it’s a good complement to the Breeding Bird Survey, which is the long-standing survey, where folks go out and count birds during the breeding summer and spring period. And we don’t have another count that documents where birds are in the winter. And so I think it’s really important for us to understand the full annual cycle of birds, what’s happening in their nonbreeding season as well as their breeding season. So it’s really important data set for us to understand and take a pulse of birds in that wintering time period.

IRA FLATOW: Janet, do you have any example that you can share why the Christmas Bird data is so important?

JANET NG: Yeah, and I think Brooke just makes these really great points because, up here in Canada, we have a lot of birds that decide that cold winters are not their thing. And so birds migrate. Lots of birds migrate South to places that are warmer, where food is easier and life is easier.

So for us, we waved goodbye to a lot of birds in the fall, wish them good luck, and hope to see them in the spring. But we don’t often know where they go or how they’re doing or where they end up. There’s a really cool study done about 10 years ago by Scott Wilson, who’s also with Environment and Climate Change Canada, who used Christmas Bird Count.

And I don’t know if he was surprised by the results. I think the rest of us were surprised by it. Him and his other scientist buddies showed that Western grebes had actually changed, where they spend their winters by over 900 kilometers.

And so we had Christmas bird counts around the Salish Sea– so that is off the West Coast of Canada and United States, around the Washington area– Christmas bird counts for years. And they noticed that Western grebes just plummeted. They went down by 95% in those recent years. And so then everybody, of course, was very, very concerned and wonder, what’s going on? What’s happening with their population?

And then meanwhile, people who were doing Christmas bird counts in Northern California were like, has anybody seen what’s happening with the Western grebes? And they saw a 300% increase. And so that paper showed that this species was moving where they were spending their winters by the stretch of like the span of three states, essentially.

And what we hypothesize that these Western groups are doing is that they’re probably moving to where the food was better. And so with climate change, we’re seeing fish stocks change, where they spend time and how many there are. And that’s essentially the biggest food source for Western grebes.

And so Western grebes in the Salish Sea decided that it was not working out for them. There’s not enough food. And so they went and scouted out an area, and they all ended up on the Northern Coast of California. Without a continental long-term data set like that, we would have no idea to be able to join these two apparently separate but apparently very linked and very connected populations. And we wouldn’t know that.

IRA FLATOW: Brooke, you lead Audubon’s climate programs. Have you relied on Christmas Bird Count data before?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Yeah, the Christmas Bird Count data has been really important tool for us to understand how birds are already responding to climate change. We actually did a study a couple of years ago led by Sarah Saunders and folks here on our science team, where we showed that winter ducks in the Eastern US are actually expanding their range northward because our winters are becoming more mild.

And some species are just overwintering and forgoing their traditional migration southward because the conditions are just so much more mild in their breeding grounds. So they’re just sticking around. And so we’re seeing these shifts. We’re seeing these ducks moving northward and leaving their southern part of their range in the winter.

We’re also seeing that birds are shifting their ranges across the board across North America in terms of climate change. And we see that we’re already seeing the climate change showing up every day in where these birds are occurring.

IRA FLATOW: And does the Bird Count tell us anything about whether we’re losing populations or gaining populations?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Yeah, so it is starting to give us some information. And we also did a study a couple of years ago that looked across all bird species that we counted in the Christmas Bird Count. And we’re seeing this change across the board, where climate change is really dictating– the climate is showing where birds can occur.

But within their ranges, changes in habitat have really led to changes in populations for different species, particularly with our wetland species and our grassland species that have seen dramatic habitat loss. So the information from the Christmas Bird Count is, really, showing us how global change is impacting these populations.

And we know from a study in 2019 that we’ve lost 3 billion birds. That’s nearly 1 in 4 birds that no longer exists today because of changes in habitat and climate. So lots of information there. The Christmas Bird Count has showed us that populations are being impacted by the things that are changing in our environment.

JANET NG: As somebody who’s been doing the same bird count for the last few years, it is a little wild that you can see some of those changes. If you’re one person doing a bird count in one location, it’s almost anecdotal. That’s your story of what you’ve seen. And there could be a rainy day, a windy day, a cold day.

But everything that you see over the years and then compiled it with everybody else’s data, that’s what tells the big story. And that allows us to pick apart the patterns and really be able to understand better and forecast what’s going to happen with bird populations.

IRA FLATOW: I know you’ve been participating in the Bird Count over years. Has it made you feel more connected to your local birds? Or do you just get tired of counting the same birds?

JANET NG: Never. Never get tired of counting the same birds. In fact, it’s been really neat. You get to know your routes. You get to know your territory in your Christmas Bird Count.

And so we had a couple of folks that were new to Christmas Bird Count with us this year. And oh, we sounded like veterans, like we knew what we were doing out there, like, oh, we usually stop here, and we listen for a blue jay. Of course, none of those birds manifested as we were saying these things.

But you do get to know your routes, and you get to know the habitats. And you have an expectation of what you might find there. It’s kind of like doing a nice, familiar route. I quite like it.

IRA FLATOW: That’s great. And, Janet, I know, as you’ve said, your work is focused on shorebirds and waterbirds. Do you had any concerns for them as we kick off 2025?

JANET NG: Oh, so well, yeah. So going into 2025, we’ve got a very, very close eye on shorebirds. As Dr. Bateman mentioned earlier, there was a study that had shown that we are several billion birds shorter than we were a few decades ago, and that’s really alarming.

A recent report by Environment and Climate Change Canada, the State of Birds of Canada Report, showed that a couple of groups of birds are in particular decline. So grassland birds have really suffered from loss of habitat, and so their declines have been extremely steep in the last couple of decades. And shorebirds, unfortunately, have also seen a massive decline in the last few decades and a very extreme decline in the last 10 years.

So a lot of the work that we’re doing now is really focused on learning more and getting more detail and really digging into what’s happening with shorebirds. So that includes birds that might breed in our local wetlands. But also a really strong emphasis, we’re closely looking at birds that breed up in the Arctic and the tundra.

IRA FLATOW: The Bird Count is coming to a close for this season. People listening now are going to say, how do I get involved maybe for next year? What advice do you have?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Yeah. So the great thing about the Christmas Bird Count is it’s open to anybody, and it’s free. And the way that you connect to a Christmas Bird Count is to find your local compiler.

And so you can go to christmasbirdcount.org and go to the information there to find the circles near you. So all of our CBCs are 15-mile diameter circles where you can see if it overlaps with where you live and then reach out to that compiler in that area. And I know that Birds Canada that manages the program in Canada also has a website that you can check out your local compiler.

So connect with your compiler, and there’s tons of ways to join. If you’re not able to do a traditional count, where you’re out walking or driving around, you can also do a feeder watching component, where you can watch the birds that come to your bird feeder. So lots of ways to participate, and it’s just a really fun way for folks to get involved.

IRA FLATOW: And you shouldn’t worry that you don’t have experience. You’ll get training, right?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Yeah, I think that’s one of the great things about a tradition like this. There’s so many people that partake in the Christmas Bird Count that folks that are new to it can be paired with a veteran that’s been doing it for a really long time. And it’s a great way to learn about the birds.

So find your local count. Get involved with the folks that are doing it. And you can really just learn a lot. Just that first time I went out, I learned a ton from folks that had been doing it for many years.

IRA FLATOW: And is that what it takes, just a day?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Just a day. It’s one morning for your local circle. Unless you’re going to participate in more than one circle, then it might be multiple days.

IRA FLATOW: Oh, do people do that?

BROOKE BATEMAN: Yeah, I know quite a few people that do multiple circles. So if you’re ambitious, you can contact circles anywhere that you see. You can even travel for them. There are some people that will travel to Latin America to do one of their CBC circles, so lots of opportunities.

IRA FLATOW: What does the Christmas Bird Count mean to people?

BROOKE BATEMAN: I think the Christmas Bird Count is just a wonderful way for folks to have a really enjoyable day birding but also connecting to something much larger than themselves. As I said earlier, this is a hemispheric program. We have folks counting from Canada down through Latin America, and that information is just so valuable to scientists. And it’s just a great way to be a part of a really fun tradition but also contributing to science and our understanding of birds and their populations.

There’s people that have been doing the Christmas Bird Count for over 50 years. I just actually signed a certificate for a compiler that had been doing the compiling role and account for 50 years. And it becomes a community. It becomes a tradition.

People look forward to it every year to doing the count. But also afterwards there’s often a tradition of getting together, having a meal, sharing what birds you saw that day, and finding a way for new folks to get involved and continue that legacy of people that care about birds and want to count. So I just think it’s become this beautiful tradition that people are just passionate about. They’re passionate about the birds in their area and that they see the value in this program. And so people really care a lot about the Christmas Bird Count.

JANET NG: I was going to say that one of the highlights after doing a Christmas Bird Count is seeing all the data that’s been compiled for your area and comparing it between years. It doesn’t take a scientist to see differences between years and to wonder why and to ask those kinds of questions. And so, yeah, seeing your hard-earned fruits of your labor, the data is one of the best parts.

IRA FLATOW: Well, good luck with all this data. And Thank you both for joining me.

JANET NG: Thanks, Ira.

BROOKE BATEMAN: Thank you.

IRA FLATOW: Dr. Brooke Bateman is the senior director of Climate and Community Science at the National Audubon Society, based in Stony Brook, New York. Dr. Janet Ng is a wildlife biologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada in Regina, Canada.

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