BVAS Special Events & Projects

Join us for the 123rd Christmas Bird Count Friday, December 30, 2023 .

The CBC takes place during the winter holiday season every year.  An annual even organized by the National Audubon Society (NAS), Buena Vista Audubon (BVAS) has been sponsoring the local CBC since the 1950s.

The Christmas Bird Count began in 1900 as an alternative to a holiday hunting contest.  Conservation was in its beginning stages, and there was concern about declining bird populations.  Members of the Audubon Society began a new holiday tradition, a "Christmas Bird Census," that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.  Currently, there are over 2,500 individual CBCs conducted worldwide.

This "Community Science" has been vital over the years, with the data collected by observers allowing researchers, biologists, and wildlife agencies to study the long-term health of bird populations across North America. This helps create strategies to protect birds and their habitats, and helps identify key environmental issues and impacts, such as climate change.

For more information on how you can participate, check out the winter BVAS Newletter that appears in November, 2023.