Christmas Bird Count
Christmas Bird Count (CBC)
The Tulsa Audubon Society participates every year in the National Audubon Society annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), a long-standing program (over 100 years old) of the National Audubon Society. It is an early-winter bird census, where volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 15-mile (24-km) diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day. It’s not just a species tally—all birds are counted all day, giving an indication of the total number of birds in the circle that day. All individual CBC’s are conducted in the period from about December 15th to January 5th each season, and each count is conducted in one calendar day. Tulsa's area is a circle that encompasses most of northern Tulsa County. The Tulsa CBC has been held continuously since 1926!
The current and previous year's results can be found below.
2020 Tulsa Christmas Bird Count
Tulsa Audubon Society participated in the 121st count by the National Audubon Society on Saturday, December 19, 2020. Tulsa's count circle is centered in Owasso, and is broken up into territories. Everyone is welcome to join a team for a day birding. Each area will have one or more experienced birders, so it's okay if you're not a hot shot birder, as long as you can spot a bird (one of those things with feathers!) someone will be there to ID it!.
The 2020 count results can be downloaded below. We had 104 species total for the 2020 count. That’s about 3 below our 30-year average of 107.2. Big misses this year were Northern Bobwhite, Common Loon, American Pipit, and Smith’s Longspur (or any longspur). We had very low numbers of Common Goldeneye (4), Bonaparte’s Gull (34), Norther Harrier (8, and most areas did not find any), White-breasted Nuthatch (2), starlings, and blackbirds. On the other hand, we had new highs for Ruddy Duck and Least Sandpiper, and good numbers of American Coots, Black Vultures, and Eastern Phoebes, and irruptive species Red-breasted Nuthatch, Purple Finch, ad Pine Siskin. Rarest bird of the day was a Say’s Phoebe near Skiatook (previously reported in 1989)!
For more details on this year's count, please see more details on the TAS Calendar.
To participate please contact CBC Coordinator Jeff Cox at 918-629-2140 or jeffacox54@gmail.com, and Jeff will assign you to a team.
Historical CBC Information
Below are the results of recent Tulsa CBCs. For other counts in Oklahoma and elsewhere see the Official National Audubon Christmas Count page, and also see John Shipman's page about the Christmas Bird Count database project.
Results of Recent Tulsa Christmas Counts
Other Oklahoma & National Christmas Count Circles Resources
National Audubon Count Map
Click here
to view the above map and zoom in to a specific circle, or zoom out to find other Christmas Counts in Oklahoma and around the country (or world!)
Count Circle Mobile App
This mobile app
is $2.99 but is some of the best money you'll ever spent if you particpate in Christmas Counts!
It's most useful to:
- Find count circles in your state/county/etc
- Tells you if you are inside or outside the circle on the Count Day as you wander about your assigned section.
Oklahoma Area Christmas Count InfoThanks to Ron Huebner for compiling this!
Other Nearby State Lists of Christmas Bird Counts
If know of a website which posts details for all the CBCs in states adjacent to Oklahoma, please contact John Kennington, to have it included on our list.