In the pouring rain, four birders trekked out across the Emeryville Marina. Each periodically stopped to wipe water from their lenses and peered through their binoculars to get a glimpse of a bird far off in the water or high up in a tree. They worked together to identify each bird based on shape, size, color, and sound.
Bill Saiki, the most novice birder of the group, had the hood of his bright green rain jacket pulled up over his head. This was Saiki’s first Oakland Christmas Bird Count, an annual event that aims to tally every bird possible in a 15-mile radius around the city, an area that encompasses all of Berkeley. He joined his sister-in-law Ruth Timme, a long-time birder, as a way of learning how to better identify species. Timme, and the two other more experienced birders in the group take time to stop and point out to Saiki the small details and telltale traits.
For Timme, the yearly bird count is a way to get to new spots that she doesn’t normally visit. She also likes that it’s a way for citizen scientists to contribute to scientific research. But mainly, Timme said birding is a way for her to connect to the environment.
“It’s a very calming, meditative hobby and it forces you to be present and use all your senses and forces you to be in the moment,” said Timme. “When I get anxious and frazzled about things, I can get out and go birding and center myself and connect with the environment and connect with the birds.”
Saiki and Timme were two of over 300 bird enthusiasts who fanned out around the East Bay on Dec. 17 for the 82nd annual Oakland Christmas Bird Count, which is just one of many local bird counts across the United States.
The National Audubon Society has been putting on the Christmas Bird Count for 124 years. Started in 1900 by ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, the count was intentionally organized as an alternative to the holiday tradition of the “Side Hunt” on Christmas day, in which teams of men would compete against each other to try to kill the most birds. At that initial count, 27 birders across the U.S. and Canada conducted 25 bird counts. Today, tens of thousands of Americans take part in local bird counts each winter.
The data from these counts has been rigorously tracked for all 124 years. In recent years, the information has been submitted to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology through the eBird app. This publicly available database is invaluable to researchers working to follow population trends for birds across the country—and the world.
“Having the historical data can be really revealing,” said Viviana Wolinsky, who has been an avid birder for several years and the co-compiler for the last three Oakland Christmas Bird Counts.
The Oakland Christmas Bird Count is one of three Bay Area bird counts sponsored by the Golden Gate Bird Alliance this winter.
Birders start early—some groups, hoping to spot owls, begin the day at 4 or 5 a.m. The rest of the counters start around sun up and usually spend the entire day birding. For the Oakland count, groups drive, walk, and even boat to multiple locations across Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany and beyond.
Binoculars are a necessary part of the birders’ kit and many groups have scopes to see birds even farther away. Experienced birders also identify certain species by their songs.
The excursion, while filled with birders with years of experience under their belts, also welcomes those new to the activity. The Golden Gate Bird Alliance works to educate emerging avian enthusiasts. The organization has a fellowship program, Birding for Everyone, designed to bring BIPOC and LGBTQ community members into birding.
“Birding over the years has skewed white and old, that’s not to say everybody, but overweight for the population,” said Wolinsky. “So we are developing a much more diverse community and that’s wonderful.”
After the long day of birding is complete, participants gather for a communal meal. At this dinner, the organizers hold a “countdown” where they shout out the names of commonly spotted birds to see how many groups saw them. This helps give the birders an initial sense of their population trends before the data is officially tabulated.
Wolinsky said that even in this initial countdown, they can begin to spot trends in the population data.
“There were a lot of comments that the diversity was high, but the numbers were low,” said Wolinsky. “In part because of the weather, but unfortunately because the number of birds is going down. It’s just the stresses from climate change and loss of habitat.”
Bird population declines have been seen worldwide. A recent climate report by the Audubon Society showed that a significant portion of North American birds are at risk of extinction due to climate change.
Dinner is also the time for awarding the “best bird for the count” prize. The winner is the group that spotted a particularly rare or interesting bird. This year’s winners spotted a Costa’s hummingbird and won birding classes put on by Cornell’s ornithology lab.
Over the days following the event, participants enter their observation data into the eBird database. While the birders work very hard to properly identify each bird they see, it can be difficult to categorize each one correctly. There are sections within the database for unconfirmed species. Additionally, since the eBird database is so valuable to ornithological researchers, eBird has a host of volunteers who comb through data and will reach out to any of the teams if they have questions or if something seems inaccurate.
While the count is a valuable research tool for scientists, according to Wolinsky, it is also a valuable community event. The Oakland Christmas Bird Count is historically one of the more well-attended. Wolinsky attributes this popularity to a variety of factors, including more recent interest in birding, but also more dedicated work by community members to make the activity more inclusive. Last Sunday, the weather wasn’t great, but attendance for the Oakland bird count was still good. Wolinksy said the pouring rain wasn’t a deterrent at all because of the sense of importance many birders feel in gathering data about bird populations.
Despite the weather and his limited birding experience thus far, Saiki said that he now plans to take part in more bird counts going forward.
“The few times that I’ve gone out with Ruth have been really eye-opening and amazing, and now with this group, it’s even more so,” said Saiki.
