Indoor Meeting – Still Counting After All These Years: The History of the New Haven Christmas Bird Count – Steve Broker

In 1900, ornithologist and Bird-Lore editor Frank Chapman called for “a Christmas bird-census” to counter the ongoing slaughter of millions of North American birds. Two pioneer counts were held in Connecticut, and in 1901 Aretas A. Saunders held New Haven’s first Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in Edgewood Park. The CBC, sponsored by National Audubon Society, has matured over the past 126 years into an invaluable conservation effort in citizen science. The NHBC has provided the leadership for the New Haven CBC for many years. In this historical retrospective, richly illustrated with photos of birds and birders, we discuss our changing early winter bird populations over the past century and a quarter.

Steve Broker, a past president of the NHBC and the Connecticut Ornithological Association, has served as compiler or co-compiler of the New Haven CBC for 17 years and has compiled and summarized the Connecticut statewide CBC for 40 years.