Over 6,000 Birds Observed

In December, SCCF participated in the National Audubon Society’s 123rd Annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) with island partners and volunteers.

The CBC is one of the world’s longest-running citizen science efforts. More than 120 years of data allow scientists to assess the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.

The first CBC was conducted on Dec. 25, 1900, when ornithologist Frank M. Chapman proposed a new holiday census in which birds were counted rather than hunted. The count was conducted by 27 birders who completed 25 counts across northeastern North America and tallied about 90 different species.

available to participate this year.”

Thanks to SCCF staff, wonderful partners from the City of Sanibel, J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, and dedicated volunteers, SCCF was able to conduct a count in safely accessible areas.

The islands’ 20-year CBC average is 13,375 individuals and 98 bird species, with these Top 5 species: laughing gulls (Leucophaeus atricilla), brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), white ibis (Eudocimus albus), sanderlings (Calidris alba), and sandwich terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis)

Some habitats suffered severe impacts from the storm, potentially leading to reduced numbers or total absence of some species, though the reduced number of observers and areas covered could also account for some of the variation, Albrecht explained.

“The higher number of vultures on the beach was likely due to the presence of a red tide fish kill, but the other top species are fairly typical,” she said. “Shorebird and seabird numbers were similar to past years, while songbirds, woodpeckers, and wading bird numbers were lower.”

In 2022, a total of 51 participants counted 6,067 individual birds of 77 species.

The Sanibel Captiva Audubon Society (SCA) has conducted the CBC annually on Sanibel and Captiva since 1961. SCCF has assisted SCA for many years, and in 2021, SCA asked SCCF to officially take over as the compilers the following year.

“No one could have anticipated the catastrophic hurricane that would cause so much devastation on the islands prior to the 2022 count,” said Shorebird Biologist Audrey Albrecht. “The damage to residents’ homes, as well as the restricted access to the island at the time of the count, greatly limited the number of people

HURRICANE-ALTERED HABITATS