Background

Each year during the holiday season for over one hundred years now, approximately 1800 National Audubon Society chapters, independent bird clubs and other wildlife organizations across the country participate in a Christmas Bird Count.

Each organization selects a 24 hour period within a 16 day window to count all the individual birds and species within a 15 mile diameter geographic circle. Sponsored by the National Audubon Society, the results are forwarded to Cornell University (Bird Source) for electronic storage. All birds recorded for the past 102 years on Christmas Bird Counts are available on the internet for use by researchers, students, birders and the general public.

The TMBC sponsors two of these annual counts – Tehachapi and Bear Valley/ Cummings Valley – and presents its findings in a printed report for each member. This effort typically involves about 420 hours of TMBC volunteer time.

The TMBC budgets for the administrative costs of data tabulation at Bird Source, ensuring our Christmas bird count will be included in the national statistics.

2008 Christmas Bird Counts

Preliminary results have been tabulated. See detailed lists of species observed in the cumulative charts linked below.

Historical Results

View the charts:
Tehachapi count totals - 1991-2008 (73.34 Kb)
Bear Valley count totals - 1994-2008 (72.86 Kb)
Red Rock count totals - 1997-2004 (56.42 Kb) (this count is no longer maintained)