2025 Christmas Bird Count: A Winter Snapshot of Keene's Bird Populations

Each December, right around Christmas, a hardy group of birders descends upon Keene and surrounding towns to conduct an annual census of birds. National Audubon's Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is steeped in a rich tradition of utilizing "community scientists" to measure bird populations over time. Founded in 1900 and evolving from the sport of shooting birds on Christmas (the "Christmas Side Hunt"), it's often regarded as the longest-running community science project in the world! Keene has a place in CBC history, as it was one of the original 25 count circles conducted in the count's inception year. Well over 100 years later, 80,000 birders now participate in over 2,800 distinct CBC circles across the Americas. Keene is still among them, but its path hasn't been linear. The Keene CBC took a long hiatus after 1900 but has now been conducted for 43 consecutive years. Over the decades, dozens of birders have contributed data, accurately identifying and counting every individual bird in a given area on a given day, providing a valuable long-term dataset to both local and broader analyses. The 2025 Keene CBC took place on Sunday, Dec. 14, and was conducted by 31 observers on 13 different teams, yielding 6,849 individuals of 59 species. This average tally for recent years is the same species number as last year's tally, but a remarkable 20 species fewer than were found on the 2023 record-breaking count. This year's total reflects a 20% drop in the number of individuals from 2024, an eyebrow-raising statistic. The possible reasons for changes year to year are too many to name, and only so many conclusions can be drawn when looking at a single count circle over time. Birds have wings and are subject to changes in the environment like weather patterns, which also influence detectability (it's harder to find birds on windy days, for example), and there are population fluctuations due to food sources, habitat changes and other factors. There may also be differences in the number of volunteers and amount of ground covered each year (the effort data), making analysis challenging. But, pooled together, data from thousands of count circles provide a useful snapshot of where birds are, and it's a chance to measure bird populations. National Audubon and other conservation partners make good use of these data, publishing numerous analyses, including widely-heralded "State of the Birds" reports and climate change studies. Most are pointing to what observers are noting anecdotally — that many species of birds are declining across our landscapes. But there are also numerous conservation success stories. Analysis isn't just reserved for the experts; the armchair scientist can review the dataset and its trends on Audubon's website. Back to Keene, many teams reported fewer birds around their usual haunts on this cold, windy day with widespread snow cover. Observer effort was less than last year, with a 16% drop in party hours and 8% drop in miles covered, but this alone shouldn't account for a 20% drop in birds. It's tempting to ascribe this past count's decline in bird numbers to any number of possibilities, but I'll reserve judgement until a bigger picture of bird distribution from this winter is available. The most common birds were a mixed bag this year. Species such as the Black-capped Chickadee had a somewhat down showing with only 608 counted. This common woodland and feeder bird was not the lone exception, as several others in its guild were similarly low. Wild Turkey followed suit with 125 reported, likely a factor of where food was distributed. A notable exception was for European Starling, the most numerous species on the count, which set a new high of 1,473 observed. This was the only record high count this year, another telling datapoint for this year's count. Though not record highs, other species showed increases, too. Blue Jays were present in strong numbers (448), perhaps due to an abundance of acorns and other seed sources. Eastern Bluebirds (181) outpaced American Robins, a fruit-loving winter bird, perhaps owing their steady increase to the presence of bird feeders, invasive berries and warming winters. Finches had a decent showing, represented by six species, including Pine Siskin (134), Red Crossbill (2) and Evening Grosbeak (2) which are not seen on every count. This was not the best year for "half-hardies" (Winter Wren, Hermit Thrush, some sparrows) — a loose affiliation of species more typical south of New England in winter — perhaps due to the earlier onset of real winter conditions. A bright spot was waterfowl, where an ice-free Spofford Lake hosted large concentrations of ducks. The sixth count record of Lesser Scaup was documented here, along with the usual larger groups of Mallards, American Black Ducks, two species of merganser, fish-eating ducks and several other species. A single new species to the count was discovered — a Savannah Sparrow, located in appropriate cornfield habitat along Krif Road. The total number of species documented in count history now stands at a remarkable 121. That's a lot of bird possibilities for December! Other count highlights included one Eastern Towhee (second record, seen in Marlborough), three Wood Ducks (fifth record, also at Krif Road), three Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (seventh record, all from recent years), one Peregrine Falcon (eighth record, in Westmoreland) and two Red Crossbills (eighth record, in Roxbury). A few remaining notables included one Common Goldeneye, one Common Loon, two Red-shouldered Hawks, four Belted Kingfishers, three Northern Flickers, three Hermit Thrushes, two Evening Grosbeaks, one Fox Sparrow, 20 Snow Buntings and 50 Carolina Wrens. The five most abundant species were European Starling (1,473), Dark-eyed Junco (775), Black-capped Chickadee (608), Blue Jay (448) and American Goldfinch (329). The biggest "misses" this year included Great Blue Heron and Horned Lark, although neither is seen on every count. As always, a big thanks goes out to all the volunteer birders who contribute their skills and efforts to the success of this annual count for conservation. Phil Brown is Bird Conservation Director at the Harris Center for Conservation Education. To learn more about the Christmas Bird Count, visit https://www.audubon.org/community-science/christmas-bird-count