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Christmas count tallies 2,343 birds
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Posted on Dec 27 2019
Over a dozen people who took part in the national Christmas Bird Count last Dec. 18 counted a total of 2,343 birds and 48 various species on Saipan alone.
“Participants saw endemic species (species found only in the CNMI), and over 20 migrant species.” said Emilie Kohler of the Division of Fish and Wildlife. “They also detected three of our endangered bird species: the Saipan reed warbler, Mariana common moorhen, and the Mariana swiftlet.”
A Christmas Bird Count will also be held on Rota and Tinian, “so we are excited to see what species our fellow birders find there this year,” said Kohler.
Nationally, the bird count this year also discovered six new species: the common greenshank, sooty tern, common sandpiper, garganey, lesser sand plover, and grey heron.
Audubon member Frank M. Chapman launched the first Christmas Bird Count in 1900 as an all-volunteer holiday census of early-winter bird populations, as an alternative to the traditional Christmas “Side Hunt,” in which hunters competed to kill as many birds (and mammals) as possible.
The annual Christmas Bird Count is held every year toward the end of December or early January.
