Whether it’s your first Christmas Bird Count or your 25th, everyone is welcome to join a CBC team for count day. What will be your favorite bird of the day? (Rough-legged Hawk photo by Paul Konrad).

Audubon’s 126th Christmas Bird Count

Audubon's 126th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will be held during one day between December 14 and January 5, leaving it up to the count compiler that organizes the local count circles across the country to pick the magic day for the CBC in each location. That day birders and anyone interested can join in to help identify and count all birds with the count circle. Count locations are spread out across the Western Hemisphere, stretching from Canada and the United States to Mexico thru Panama, the Caribbean Isles, and South America from Colombia to Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, and beyond.

Regardless of the weather on the selected day, birders will be participating by identifying and counting birds for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The annual Audubon CBC is a special birding tradition that brings people together with the common goal of contributing valuable information about “where the birds are” during the key seasonal period of late December and early January.

To get started, refer to an introductory Audubon article at Join the Christmas Bird Count | Audubon, and find a count circle or circles near home – or where you plan to spend all or part of the holiday season; see National Audubon Society | 126th Christmas Bird Count. Click on any count circles on the map to get the location of the site and the compiler’s name and email address. Then contact the compiler for that count circle by email, and you will receive pertinent information about that CBC and how to get started. Everyone is welcome, beginners will be teamed with advanced birders who will help in every way to improve everyone’s birding skills and confidence, while you participate and contribute to this season’s Christmas Bird Count. Join the tradition, join the fun.