Modified: May 17, 2010
The Audubon Christmas Bird Count was started over 100 years ago by ornithologist Frank Chapman in an effort to try to switch the focus of birding away from hunting and toward conservation. Since then, this citizen science program has expanded to thousands of sites across North America and includes tens of thousands of volunteers. Each volunteer who braves the cold and snow of Fairbanks in December to participate is contributing in an invaluable way to science and conservation. Audubon, along with many other organizations, use this long running data set to monitor bird populations and locate any changing trends at local levels as well as on a continental scale. In recent years, Audubon has released several reports using Christmas Bird Count data that have helped scientists and policy makers identify threatened bird populations and in turn raise the awareness needed to take action. The following are the results of our own local efforts during the Christmas Bird Count in the Fairbanks area for a select species. As you will see, there have been some interesting trends over the years including the addition of several species to our list of year-round residents. The reasons for these trends are unknown, though perhaps our changing local climate has been a factor. Included here are also graphs of our local winter temperatures and snow depth over the same time period.
Christmas Bird Count data (Fairbanks winter bird abundance)
National Audubon Society (2002). The Christmas Bird Count Historical Results [online]. Available http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc [November 2009]
Climate data (monthly and yearly tempertature, yearly precipitation, snowfall and snowdepth)
Geophysical Institute at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Observation site, Fairbanks International Airport. http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Climate/Location/TimeSeries/Fairbanks.html
Photo Credits
Mallard, Rock Dove – ©Marie Read
Common Merganser, Canadian Goose (4 pictures), Greater White-fronted Goose – ©Gerrit Vyn/gerritvynphoto.com
Northern Goshawk – ©Jerry & Sherry Liguori
Dark-eyed Junco – © John W. Herbst
All other bird photos courtesy of The Alaska Bird Observatory
