2024 Christmas Bird Count Overview 

The 83rd Eugene Christmas Bird Count (ECBC) was a great success. On December 29, 2024, 170 hardy birdwatchers took to the field and walked 169 miles, drove 409 miles, and rode bicycles 4 miles looking for birds. They, along with 107 Home Counters, identified 138 bird species and counted 73,250 individual birds. Combined, Field Observers and Home Counters spent a total of 552 hours looking and listening for birds.

Articles by ECBC Species Compiler Vjera Thompson and Home Count Coordinator Marcia Maffei go into more depth about the birds we identified.

A total of 170 Field Observers, our second highest number ever, participated in this year’s Count. Last year’s total of 190 was the most we’ve ever had. Combining the 170 Field Observers with 107 Home Counters brought the total to 277 observers, our second highest number of Count participants ever. Last year was the highest at 291. This year’s 107 Home Counters was our fourth highest.

Fortunately, the prediction for rain all day did not come true, as the sun came out around 8 am and it didn’t start raining until around 3 pm. The early morning birders who went out looking and listening for owls from around 5 to 7 am did get wet. Some teams experienced flooding in areas they would normally walk through looking for birds. Many thought we should submit the number of rainbows we observed in the afternoon because they were as colorful as birds!

At the end of the day, around 75 Field Observers gathered at Putters on Highway 99N for a Pizza Countdown. This was a fun way to end a full day of finding birds with other birdwatchers.

The ECBC is surprisingly impressive for such a small organization, due to having so many active birders in the Eugene-Springfield area, combined with the outstanding energy and efforts of our 28 dedicated Team Leaders. They organize their teams and guide them all day long while looking for birds. I have listed the Team Leaders on this page. Some have led teams for more than 20 years, some more than 30! We were also happy to welcome five new Team Leaders this year.

I want to thank the LCAS Board of Directors for sponsoring the ECBC; Vjera Thompson, the Species Compiler; Marcia Maffei, the Home Count Coordinator; and all the Team Leaders for making the 83rd ECBC fun, educational, and exciting! Thank you all!

SAVE THE DATE!
2025 Christmas Bird Count
Sunday Dec 28, 2025

2024 ECBC Home Count Information

We sincerely hope that you enjoyed a wonderful day of birding from the comfort of your home December 29! This year our 107 Home Count Observers identified 74 species! That came to 6 more observers than last year, identifying the same number of species.

The Pine Siskin emerged as the most reported bird, with 1,074 sightings. Did you know that the collective nouns for a group of Pine Siskins are: a charm, a trembling, a company, or a trimming? I know that I am charmed by them! Dark-eyed Juncos (529) and Bushtits (450) also made an impressive showing. Anna’s Hummingbirds hovered in with 128 individuals.

Other species that made a good showing included: Canada Goose: 472; Cackling Goose: 388; European Starling: 289; American Crow: 232; American Robin: 205; House Finch: 193; Black-capped Chickadee: 168; Lesser Goldfinch: 166; California Scrub Jay: 144; Mourning Dove at 130, and the Golden-crowned Sparrow at 104. The remaining species were in single or double digits. And finally, 1 Rufous Hummingbird rounded out the Home Count list.

Many thanks to the 107 observers who observed 74 species, for a total of 5,910 individual birds. If you’ve never done it before, I encourage you to begin thinking about joining next year’s Count, either as a Home Counter or a Field Observer on Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. You’ll be glad you did!

By Marcia Maffei, 2024 Eugene Christmas Bird Home Count Coordinator

 

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a long-standing program of the National Audubon Society, with over 100 years of community science involvement. It is an early-winter bird census, where thousands of volunteers across the US, Canada and many countries in the Western Hemisphere, go out on one calendar day to count birds.

Local events take place in Eugene, Florence, Cottage Grove, and Oakridge at the end of December, and are open to anyone interested in birds. If you are just starting to get interested and want to learn more, this is a fun and exciting opportunity to learn about birds and birding from experienced birders. For all the dates, see our December events calendar closer to Dec 2025.

You may also contact Dick Lamster at 541-343-8664

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KLCC News Spreads the Word about the Home Count

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