Saturday, December 20, 2025

8 AM, 9:30 AM, & 11 AM

You’re invited to join CHA staff in this year’s Christmas Bird Count!

Frank Chapman and 26 other conservationists initiated the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Christmas Day 1900 as a way of promoting conservation by counting, rather than hunting, birds. Some counts have been running every year since then and the CBC now happens in over 20 countries in the western hemisphere!  Read more about its history here.  Now a long-standing program of the National Audubon Society, it is the longest running Citizen Science project in the world. This event is an early-winter bird census, where thousands of volunteers across the U.S., Canada, and many countries in the Western Hemisphere go out over a 24-hour period on one calendar day to count birds.

Our day for participation is Saturday, December 20, 2025. CHA staff will be participating in this program by monitoring density and diversity of bird species seen or heard throughout the grounds. That means we are not only recording the different species we encounter, but also how many of each species are present. This year, we invite our members and the public to come dressed for the weather and prepared with binoculars to participate as well.

Please meet at the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum at 8am, 9:30am, or 11am. You are welcome to stay for an hour or the entire time. While this event is recommended for visitors 16 years and older, all are welcome. Please note that this is largely a quiet activity, not a lesson in birding

For more information or to register for free, please email [email protected] with the subject line: Christmas Bird Count