Register now to take part on Sunday December 14th!
The 74th annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count (CBC YYC) will take place on Sunday, December 14, 2025. Here is a message from Coordinator Matt Wallace:
As you may know, Calgary hosts one of the largest CBCs in Alberta and Western Canada. In 2024, we had a total of 141 field participants and 163 feeder watchers, documenting 71 species and counting 39,446 individual birds. It’s a big job that takes an army of people to ensure its success each year. We hope you’ll join us again this season—no matter your experience or birding skills. Each one of you plays an important role, and the data we collect helps us understand long-term trends in our winter birds.
We’ve set up a Google Form that we kindly ask everyone to fill out so we have your most up-to-date information for analysis and team assignments. Please share the registration form widely with your network of neighbours, friends, family, and colleagues. Register Here. Once you submit your registration you will receive an acknowledgement email from us, followed by further instructions in mid-November.
A quick note: This year, I am seeking a “shadow” assistant (or assistants) to work with our organizing team. I plan to hand off the CBC Coordinator role to an inspired member of our community for the 2026 Calgary event, as I may be relocating in the new year. Finding a suitable successor will help ensure the continued success and legacy of this long-running event.
Birds Canada has also launched a pilot project encouraging CBC circles to have Community Engagement Leaders (CELs). Calgary has been ahead of the curve in this regard—this has essentially been my role in recent years, while Lara Fitzpatrick has handled much of the data analysis for our circle. Bob Lefebvre is another key member of our team, overseeing feeder watcher outreach and following up on notable or unusual bird reports.
Birds Canada: The CEL roles are defined as:
- Participant recruitment and community outreach
- Helping manage sector/section/zone assignments and coordination
- Onboarding new participants and facilitating mentoring
- Coordinating communications with participants
This pretty much sums up what we are looking for in the “Shadow Assistant” Role with this person leading the charge next year. If you’re interested in taking on the coordinator role, there’s an option on the registration form where you can indicate your interest and provide a few details. We’ll be in touch right away to include you in this year’s planning. We encourage anyone with an interest to apply!
Please watch for more information in November, including data submission instructions and templates.
A quick reminder that our CBC is open to anyone with an interest in the outdoors including experienced birders, novices, and the public. We try to accommodate all abilities and ages to grow and support our community, so please let us know if you need any assistance or have any requests using the comment section of the form.
Register for the Calgary CBC here: https://forms.gle/pcAU6tH7Vcfk63sV9
Thank you very much for your attention—we’re looking forward to connecting with you all for our big count day!
I had a immature goldfinch at my feeder Dec14. 8840 33 Ave NW. The double wingbars stood out compared to the house sparrows nearby. Andrew Stiles
There is a really high number of Goldfinches around this winter. I have a photo of 20 at a feeder at one time taken on Count Day just west of the city!
Hi, I have been visited a few times this season by a house finch, with white feathers where the red usually are. Is this quite normal?
This is not too common but it is likely lacking the ability to produce some coloured pigments. Any bird can have this condition but it’s not common.
I noticed on the Registration form an offer for an eBird tutorial. As a regular eBird we, I didn’t need it, but I was wondering whether you encourage all CBC Participants to record their observations on eBird.
Yes. For our field teams, we would like them all to use eBird. We do require additional effort information that can be added. For Feeder Watchers, we have a template for the observtions and additional information that needs to be filled out, but it is good practice to also put your yard observations into eBird to contribute to that database.
Matt will be sending out detailed instructions this week.