Audubon North Carolina’s annual Christmas Bird Count begins today and runs through January 5th. For the 117th year, birders across the state help provide census data that researchers, biologists and wildlife agencies use to help assess the health of bird populations and guide conservation action. Field Organizer for Audubon North Carolina Kim Branch says last year, record numbers of loons were recorded along the coast.
“There was also a surprising, first ever bird on the Christmas Bird Count of North Carolina called a brown booby. So a big, chunky kind of cute seabird that breeds in the Bahamas, basically not seen on the North Carolina coast.”
In 2016, volunteers counted more than 872,500 individual birds of nearly 230 different species in North Carolina. The nationwide Christmas Bird Count is the longest running citizen-science survey.
For more information on the annual Christmas Bird Count, go to: http://nc.audubon.org/news/118th-annual-audubon-christmas-bird-count
