CBC Details and Guidelines

Christmas Bird Count Details

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is the copyrighted property of the National Audubon Society (NAS).

The Fort Collins Audubon Society is the legal custodian of the Fort Collins Christmas Bird Count.

Specific guidelines established by the NAS govern participation in the CBC and acceptance of CBC results for publication.

Counts must be conducted on a single day between December 14 and January 5.

All counting must be done within a 15-mile diameter circle.

The circle position remains fixed in perpetuity unless NAS grants permission
to move it.

No new circles may overlap existing circles.

Counting is to be conducted from sunup to sundown, and nighttime owl
counts are to be kept separate.

Participation and count results are calculated by parties. A party is a group of any number of people who work together as a team and are likely to see and count the same birds.

Each participant is strongly encouraged to donate $5 to Audubon for each count. The donations are used to pay the expenses of mailings, compiling the results, publishing them in American Birds, and CBC coordination.

Fort Collins CBC Guidelines

The circle center is situated "4 1/2 miles north-northwest of town, 1/4 mile north of the southwestern corner Sec. 22, T8N, R69W,"¹ which lies on N. Taft Hill Rd. a little north of Larimer County Road 54. The circle includes Lory State Park, Lower Poudre Canyon to the old water filter plant, most of Wellington, almost two miles east of I-25, and south to Horsetooth Road.²

A count compiler, chosen with the approval of the Fort Collins Audubon Society board, organizes the Fort Collins CBC. The compiler may enlist as many co-compilers as necessary or helpful to conduct and complete the count each year.

The compiler:

Selects the date, for continuity through the years the first Saturday in the count period

Arranges party leaders and helps organize the parties;

Assigns count areas

Collects party tallies and tabulates the results

Collects participation fees

Submits final results to NAS and to the Ptarmigan editor

All participants must count within assigned count areas.

All participants are strongly encouraged to dontate $5. The names of persons making the donation will published with the count results.

If a person agrees to count but emergency prevents it, that person must call the compiler or designated co-compiler by 7 a.m. of the count day so that another person can cover the assigned area.

Party leaders are responsible for calculating party miles and party hours.

Participants are explicitly expected to cover their areas as thoroughly as legal and safe access permit.

The compiler is authorized to discount contributions by participants who knowingly ignore the Fort Collins CBC or NAS guidelines.

Notes

1. The first Fort Collins CBC had a circle centered at the old post office building downtown. It was moved the second year to the location specified here. This description of the circle center appears in Audubon Field Notes 1948, 3(2):137. This has been the standard description since that time.

2. Kevin Cook states: "When I received the Ft. Collins CBC file materials [the circle had been drawn] with the center located on Larimer County Road 19 (the northern extension of Taft Hill Road), two miles north of what was then U.S. 287 at what would be the intersection with LCR 54 if it went through. This position is exactly the southwestern corner of Section 22 rather than the quarter-mile north as written in the original description. I adjusted the circle center to conform to the historical written description and drew a new circle based on that position. New maps extend the circle perimeter to areas along the southeastern, southern, and southwestern boundaries that were not historically included in counts. These new areas have been included in the count throughout the 1990s." Kevin Cook, 29 September 2000.