The 2024 Charlottesville Christmas Bird Count will be held on Sunday, December 15, with a rain date of Sunday, December 22.
Since 1900, thousands of birdwatchers across America participate in the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count to count and identify as many birds as possible during a 24-hour period from December 14 to January 5. The Charlottesville Christmas Bird Count (CCBC) has been held since 1924, making this year’s CCBC a centennial!
Click above to view on Google Maps.
All levels of birders, from beginners to professional scientists, participate in the count. The data compiled by the Christmas Bird Count is used to inform and power bird conservation efforts by helping researchers study the ongoing status and ranges of bird populations across the Americas. Learn more from the National Audubon Society.
The CCBC covers a circle 15 miles in diameter–centered in Ivy and split into eight sectors–that includes the City of Charlottesville and part of Albemarle County. Various teams of birdwatchers (typically about 20 teams with 60 participants total) explore set routes within the circle to record every individual of every species seen and heard. Birds must be seen or heard while participants are within this circle on the day of the Count for data to go toward the CCBC. All sightings are then organized by a “compiler,” who is Jenny Gaden for the CCBC.
Participating is easy and all are welcome! Simply contact Jenny at [email protected] to get started!
Jenny will assign you to a team with a pre-determined area to cover. Each team has a leader who coordinates their team’s meeting time and location, sets the route for the day, and compiles the team’s bird sightings. Or, if you prefer and are up to the task, you may request to initiate a new route and be your own leader.
Participants should be prepared for variable and harsh winter weather. Warm, layered clothing with a waterproof later are recommended, along with hand and foot warmers, snacks, lunch, and hot drinks and/or water. Please also note we are in the midst of Virginia’s hunting season, we strongly advise all participants to wear blaze orange. And of course, bring your binoculars and if you have one, a camera to help document rare bird species.
On the evening of the CCBC, participants will join a Zoom video call to tally observed species. More info will be shared about this tally closer to the CCBC via Facebook and email.
National Audubon Society Guidelines for use of Merlin birding app on Christmas Bird Count
With the rapid increase in use of the Merlin birding app for identifying bird vocalizations in the field, Audubon needs to address the best use practices of this birding tool on Christmas Bird Counts.
- If an unfamiliar vocalization is heard by CBC participants and Merlin is used to assist in the identification, inclusion of the species is permitted.
- If Merlin picks up a vocalization of a bird species that participants did not hear right away, but that then do then hear and identify, inclusion of the species is permitted.
- If Merlin assists in the identification of the call of a rare or hard-to-identify species, secondary identification by sight or photography should be obtained to permit inclusion of that species.
- As with by-ear identification, species that are often imitated by others (hawks by jays, mimicry by mimics, etc.) should also be visually confirmed for inclusion.
- If Merlin identifies a vocalization of a species that is neither heard nor independently seen by participants on a Christmas Bird Count, that species may not be included in the CBC results.
At the end of the day, participants join a Zoom video call to tally species.
