This month, hundreds of Cincinnatians participated in one of the longest-running citizen science projects in the world — the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count.
People have picked up binoculars and spent a day documenting birds throughout the Western Hemisphere every December and January since 1900.
Cincinnati count compiler Jack Stenger says the bird census replaced the Christmas "side hunt" tradition. That was a competition of who could kill the most animals.
“At the turn of that century, that was when bird conservation was first coming to the minds of biologists and people paying attention to birds. So, they decided to replace that tradition with a tradition that actually counted the birds, that could then be used to monitor their populations over time,” Stenger said.
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Cincinnati’s Christmas Bird Count has taken place for the past 77 years, providing a record of local bird populations over decades.
Stenger says one trend the counters observed is the decline of grassland birds.
“As we have more and more developed land [and] less historical farming practices that emphasize pasture and grassland, we're seeing fewer birds like northern bobwhite quail, eastern meadowlark, American kestrel...” Stenger said.
That mirrors national trends. Grassland bird populations collectively have declined by 53%, according to a study published in the journal Science in 2019.
Stenger says they've also documented local increases over the years, like in bald eagles.
“Now we're getting 10-plus birds a count as they establish territories up and down our river systems,” Stenger said.
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The count shows how climate change is impacting bird populations. As winters get milder, some birds’ winter ranges are expanding north, across the Ohio River.
“The amount of vultures that we have in the winter now — that was unprecedented 20 years ago,” Stenger said. “Now we have black vultures all over the city throughout the winter, and you see them driving down every highway. That's a relatively new phenomenon that is attributed to their range just creeping northward.”
Stenger says counters document more than 100 bird species in the Cincinnati area.
Each local group compiles their results, then reports them to the national organization.
The complete results are available online, and trends can be explored through the “Where Have All the Birds Gone?” tracker.
How to participate:
Several Christmas Bird Counts are happening throughout the Tri-State this weekend.
- East Fork Christmas Count, Jan. 4
- Falmouth, Kentucky, Christmas Bird Count, Jan. 4
- Michaela Farm-Oldenburg, Indiana, Christmas Bird Count, Jan. 5
You can sign up by emailing the organizers listed on the Audubon’s website.