Get ready, get set - count birds!

Submitted by Derek Connelly, North Durham Nature

Put down your phone and get ready to take on a new kind of tweet this holiday season. North Durham Nature needs help counting birds.

Photo by Skylar Ewing

The annual Christmas Bird Count has begun; between Dec. 14, 2025 and Jan. 5, 2026, 70+ birders in North Durham will join forces with thousands of birders from over 2,700 locations in the western hemisphere for the National Audubon Christmas Count.

Started in New York and Toronto exactly 126 years ago, the tradition continues with bird watchers fighting the winter elements to complete the massive citizen science census of our feathered friends. The information gathered provides critical data to inform conservation action. According to Audubon, this information, when combined with other surveys like the Breeding Bird Survey, the Christmas Bird Count helps provide a picture of how bird populations have changed over the past century, a long-term perspective that is critical for protecting birds and their habitat. These data have been cited in more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, including a 2019 study in Science that documented the loss of nearly three billion North American birds since 1970.

In North Durham, there are two counts to choose from: Beaverton’s bird count encompasses the Sunderland area all the way up to Lake Simcoe, and the Uxbridge count stretches over to Port Perry.

Participants are invited to either count at their own feeder(s) or out on the trails.

Count day for the Beaverton (Brock) circle is on Tuesday, Dec. 30. Count day for the uxbridge/Scugog circle is Saturday, Dec. 27.

For more information and to register for the bird count, contact Derek Connelly at ndnature7@gmail.com or John Mclean at jsmclean33@gmail.com There is no fee to participate in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. All data must be submitted through the official compiler to be added to the census.

In the meantime, fill up those feeders! Clean the binoculars! Practice with your bird app on your phone! It’s bird count time!