Christmas Bird Counts

photo by Ira SandersThe Denver Christmas Bird Count was formed in 1954 and has been conducted every year since then to give us a great picture of wintering species in the greater Denver urban area. With the nearly ubiquitous use of eBird to capture sightings in the last few years, and the growth of the DFO field trip program, the CBC was integrated with DFO's trip data collection in 2019.

All CBCs are conducted annually, on a single day between the dates of December 14 and January 5. Many people find that spending a day censusing the birds of their area is a highlight of the birding year. The Denver count specifically is scheduled the first weekend of the count period. Watch The Lark Bunting in November and December for details on how to participate and contact information.

You may explore the CBC results in several ways:

  • Summary - summarizes count totals by area since 2019
  • By Year - summarizes species totals for each area since 2019
  • CBC Library - many reports from previous years saved as PDFs for your viewing pleasure as well as some downloadable Excel files for analysis