Photo by Dave DouglassThe Audubon Society and its countrywide chapters organizes and conducts an annual Christmas Bird Count across the country (including Canada) during the Holiday Season. This event started in the year 1900 because prior to the turn of the 20th century, hunters engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas “Side Hunt.” That is, they would choose sides (teams) and go afield with their guns, and whichever “side” brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won.
Conservation was in its beginning stages in that era, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, an early officer in the then-nascent Audubon Society (the Society officially came into being in 1905), proposed a new holiday tradition – a “Christmas Bird Census” that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.
So began the Christmas Bird Count. Thanks to the inspiration of Chapman and the enthusiasm of 27 dedicated birders, 25 Christmas Bird Counts were held that day. The locations ranged from Toronto, Ontario to Pacific Grove, California with most counts in or near the population centers of northeastern North America. Those original 27 Christmas Bird Counters tallied around 90 species on all the counts combined.