Golden Eagle Audubon Society - Christmas Bird Counts

Christmas Bird Count

Join the world's longest-running Citizen Science program.

For three weeks each winter, people across the United States and Canada work together to take a 'snapshot' of all the birds in North America. Anyone can participate in this citizen science program and contribute to a dataset that fuels science all year. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is preformed at over 2,300 sites each year and GEAS helps count six of those sites.

There are counts preformed in Boise, Bruneau, Cascade, Garden Valley, Hagerman, McCall, and Nampa (view our calendar for dates and details). After the Boise Count all the birders are welcome to regroup for dinner, share their stories from the day, and tally up their final count. Learn more about the CBC and why it's important for birds.

Find a local CBC to join

Components of a CBC

Count Period: The chosen eleven day period either side of Christmas in which each individual count is to be completed, runs from December 14th - January 5th. All CBC's must be completed during this time frame.
Count Week: Any species observed within the count circle 3 days before or after count day can still be counted as a “count week” species. In short, we know that the species in in the count area at the right season, we just didn’t luck into it on count day. Only species can be noted, not numbers of individuals. These species are added into the compilation as C/W or Count Week Birds.
Count Day: Actual day of the count, a census of all bird species and their numbers.
Count Circle: The area covered. The Boise circle, as with all circles, has a 7.5mi. radius. Boise's is centered on the State Capitol dome, making for an area of nearly 178 sq.mi. and broken into 14 individual sections
Feeder Watch: An alternate way to participate by counting birds at a feeder. All birds noted or counted during Count Week, Count Day and Feeder Watch must be within the confines of the Count Circle.