Birds, Science & Conservation
Audubon Christmas Bird Counts in Ohio

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is unquestionably one of the most successful, and longest-running citizen science monitoring programs ever, and Ohio has been involved with the CBC since its inception in 1900.

The CBC was first instituted by Frank M. Chapman, an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and an officer in the relatively new Audubon Society. At the turn of the century the depletion of bird populations through unregulated recreational hunting, and over-harvesting for the fashion industry of the time were major concerns for many people throughout the U.S. In an attempt to create greater awareness for the plight of bird populations, and develop an alternative activity to hunting Chapman created the Christmas Bird Count. Christmas was chosen for Chapman’s Bird Count because that date had traditionally been used for a hunting-related activity where hunters split up into different competitive teams and went out into the field to shoot as many birds as they possibly could. The winning team was the one that had shot the most birds.

The first Christmas Bird Count had 27 volunteer participants who counted birds in 25 distinct count circles across 13 different states and two Canadian provinces. They collectively counted 18,500 individual birds and 90 total species. Today there are nearly 50,000 volunteer CBC observers throughout the world.

William Leon Dawson (L) and Professor Lynds Jones (R) in August of 1900.

Professor Lynds Jones of Oberlin was one of the original 27 counters of 1900, thereby securing Ohio's place in history as one of the first states to conduct a Christmas Bird Count. During that first Ohio count, Jones counted 14 species which included a Red-shouldered Hawk, 40 (American) Tree Sparrows, and 14 Purple Finches, and only one (Northern) Cardinal. Jones was born in Jefferson, Ohio and began his education at Grinnell College in Iowa. He later moved back to Ohio to complete his college education at Oberlin College, where he eventually secured a teaching position with the college. He also began offering a non-credit course in Ornithology, which was eventually adopted by the college for credit, making Oberlin one of the first colleges in the nation to offer a formal course in Ornithology. Jones also went on to help found the Wilson Ornithological Society and establish and edit the Wilson Bulletin; one of the earliest ornithological journals in the nation.

In an 1898 issue of the Wilson Bulletin, Professor Jones published a paper titled "The Bird Census". The paper described a winter bird census that Jones and a colleague, William Leon Dawson, conducted on December 28th of 1897 around the village of Oberlin, Ohio. It is thought by some that Professor Jones' paper, and the description of his methods there-in, inspired Frank Chapman to create the first Christmas Bird Count of 1900.

Volunteers participating in a winter bird survey at Buck Creek State Park.

Today there are over 60 Audubon Christmas Bird Counts throughout Ohio that attract close to 1500 volunteer counters who count nearly 20,000 Northern Cardinals annually, and the number of both volunteers and Cardinals goes up each year. The latter may be partly due to the positive impacts of backyard bird-feeding stations, and changing climate conditions. The former is because of an increase in the popularity of birding. It's estimated that nearly three million people in Ohio participate in some form of wildlife-watching activity. Those activities include bird-watching, bird-feeding, landscaping for birds, nature photography, or some other activity like participating in a local Christmas Bird Count.

To get involved in a Christmas Bird Count near you download a copy of our Audubon Ohio Christmas Bird Count directory.

Click here to learn more about the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

Snow Bunting, Horned Lark, and Lapland Longspur feeding in a winter field in southwestern Ohio; December 2005. Photo courtesy of Casey Tucker.