Join the Count

Welcome to the granddaddy of citizen science projects! If you are new to the CBC and know your common winter bird species, we invite you to join the count. Our cold hardy volunteers team up with a field party and receive their assignments directly from their local coordinators; our feeder watchers tally their birds comfortably at home. Participants submit their checklists to their respective town sector coordinators who compile the results and prepare a master document for the Primary Compiler. He consolidates and submits our data to the National Audubon Society. The individual town counts are called out during a “countdown” potluck supper an evening following Count Day. This is a grand tradition that is so much fun we almost forget how totally exhausted we are.

Before contacting a coordinator explore the How to pages. Here you will find the starting and ending times, how to collect and record your observations, information about the voluntary donation, what Count Week is, and a few comments in regard to owling and rare birds. When you meet your coordinator you will know what you will be doing and how to do it.

If you are a first-time volunteer and live outside the Concord count circle please contact a coordinator in any town accepting new volunteers. If you live within the boundary we encourage you to contact your town’s coordinator, but you are welcome to join any town sector accepting new volunteers. Click on your town link, featured on the sidebar of this page. When you write or call please let us know if you would like to join a field team, count birds at your feeders, or both.

Places on field teams may be limited and enrollments are at the discretion of the town coordinators. Contact us early to assure your participation. We may have to turn down eleventh-hour volunteers because we do not have slots for them.

We also remind you that this is a science project, and like any scientific endeavor its success depends upon the accuracy and completeness of the data you provide.