Greetings birders,
Last year’s Santa Barbara CBC (CBC124) was held on December 30, 2023. Results of that count can be found in the Results tab.
The upcoming CBC (CBC125), will be held on Saturday, January 4, 2025. We will continue updating this site with more details in coming weeks!
For questions about the CBC, please email us at: email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Thanks for your interest,
Libby Patten, Glenn Kincaid, Linus Blomqvist, Conor McMahon, Steve Hovey and Andy McGrath
SB CBC Coordinators
Audubon’s 125th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is coming very soon with the Santa Barbara CBC to be held on Saturday, January 4, 2025!
For questions about the CBC, please email us at: email hidden; JavaScript is required.
For instructions on how to participate in the CBC, click the Instructions button above.
A Few Reminders
CBC Compilation Event –
The CBC night compilation will be back at our beloved Fleischmann Auditorium at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History at 2559 Puesta del Sol. The evening will start with pre-dinner socializing at 5:30 pm followed by a catered dinner at 6 pm. Details about ordering dinner and related information can be found HERE.
The main event, the exciting tabulation of the species found, will start at 7:00 pm. We are also working out the details for a parallel Zoom session. Come back here soon for more details on our parallel Compilation Zoom.
We hope to see you in person or virtually!
Count Week starts Wednesday, January 1st – Count week includes the 3 days before and after CBC, so January 1-3 and January 5-7.
The CBC Count Area — A link to a map showing our boundary is HERE. Note, on touch screens use the “+” and “-” buttons to zoom in and out, and one finger to pan the map.
The most accurate field-level check on our boundary (assuming that your GPS gathering device is accurate) is to set a GPS waypoint to our circle’s center: 34.451248, -119.762698, and then make sure that the distance to this point is equal to or under 7.5 miles.
If you have a “smart device” there is an effective app called “Count Circle,” by Stevens Creek Software, which shows on your device the boundary, along with your current location (if your device is set up for GPS location service). Count Circle includes the complete National Audubon database of CBCs (updated as of October 2014), with a total of 2646 different count circles in 89 different states and territories including Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, and Antarctica.
Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) have a long history of over 100 years, and are sponsored by the National Audubon Society. Their CBC page is located at http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count . Results may be found there.
The Santa Barbara Natural History Museum generously makes available their Fleischmann Auditorium for our compilation dinner, maintains our compiled bird count records, and has a long and storied relationship with local ornithology. Check out their newly renovated campus and bird hall! They are at http://www.sbnature.org/ .
Find out about local sightings and information concerning SB County birds at the groups.io community group site https://sbcobirding.groups.io/g/main .
For checklists, a regional birding guide, and much more, check out http://www.sbcobirding.com/ .
CBC125 Participant Instructions
Thank you for participating in the Santa Barbara CBC! CBC125 will take place on Saturday, January 4, 2025.
Instructions for All Birders
Your Assigned Area
You should have been assigned areas to cover by the count’s organizers. If you’re unclear on where you’ll be birding on count day or have other questions, contact us at email hidden; JavaScript is required
The boundaries for the different “birding areas” can be found here: https://bit.ly/sb_cbc_areas
Before the Count: Scouting
Beginning December 1, scouting is highly encouraged within our CBC Count Circle and especially your assigned area. The Santa Barbara CBC Count Circle boundaries are shown HERE. Please report any sightings of the desired species shown in The List.
If interested, you can view the desired and other rare species reported to eBird within the CBC Count Circle using the BirdView tool, which can be found here: https://bit.ly/sb-cbc-125.
A brief tutorial for using the BirdView tool can be found Here.
Instructions for Group Leaders and Solo Birders
Track Species on Count Day
Species Tracking List: A link to a Google Sheets document for tracking reported species will be made available on Count Day. Please use this document to report species seen (or heard), especially species that are rare or on the desired species list for scouting. Report birds by entering your information in the “Observed by” and “Location” columns for birds you find that no one else has reported yet.
eBird Trip report: A link to an eBird trip report will be made available on Count Day. This trip report will only show species on eBird checklists that have been shared and accepted to the sc-cbc eBird account.
Submit your Checklists on CBC Day
It’s important to share your checklists or at least tell us your target birds by midday so we can send others to look for missed species.
- Use eBird if at all possible. IMPORTANT: Please share your checklist(s) with the “sb-cbc” eBird user, preferably when you submit the list using the mobile app. This will allow us to track the species reported during the day. If you submit your checklist from the mobile app without sharing, you will need to log in to the eBird website to share it. See Sharing Checklists at eBird for help.
- If you can’t use eBird, you can submit digital Word document checklists to your Area Coordinator. See the bottom of this page for links to Word-based forms.
- You are responsible for your group’s checklist(s) of species identified and counts for each species. Someone else can record the list, but as group leader you are responsible for its accuracy and submitting final data to your Area Coordinator.
- eBird Best Practices: Please follow best practices for eBird. This will help the Christmas Bird Count data compilation ease and ensure that data submitted to eBird will have high value for scientific research. Here are a couple of articles describing best practices for using eBird on Christmas Bird Counts:
ebirding-your-cbc
ebird-rules-and-best-practices
Key Points:
- Use eBird Hotspots for your location, if available. Be as specific as possible. Your “territory” might contain more than one hotspot.
- Do not group sightings from multiple areas/hotspots into a single checklist.
- This is a bird COUNT so please submit numerical values for species, not “X”.
Participant and Effort Data: National Audubon requires these data when we submit our bird count data, so please get this to us. This year we’re simplifying matters and not using a special form (for eBirders). Yay! We need these two things from you:
For your group’s participants, please get a list of everyone’s name (and email addresses if possible). This can be collected on paper, take a photo with your phone and emailed to your area coordinator. Or you can just type the names and send in an email.
For the effort data, please use the comments section in the eBird checklist to describe your mode of transport if different than walking. The checklist also has boxes to enter the number of people in your party, time birding, and distance (be sure to report one-way distance only).
If you aren’t using eBird, you’ll find a participant/effort section in the digital Word-based checklist (link at bottom of this page).
Rare Birds: Birds with “Rare” status will be determined by eBird. If a species on your checklist is flagged as rare, please include the appropriate documentation (photos, detailed descriptions) in your checklist so that the sighting can be confirmed by the eBird reviewers. See this article for more information on reporting rare birds in eBird: how-to-document-your-sightings
Please note specific time and location where rare birds were spotted, and direction of movement if the birds are moving. This will help us determine whether there are duplicate reports of individual birds.
Mobile Birds: Some birds are likely to move through several areas during Count Day. In order to help us track these birds and eliminate duplicate sightings, please note the specific time and location, and if the birds are moving and in what direction, if you encounter the following species:
- Geese (Other than Canada Geese)
- Golden or Bald Eagles
- Osprey
- White-tailed Kite
- Any Swallows
- Any Swifts
- White Pelican
Reporting subspecies: Please leave your reports at the species level unless you feel confident identifying the subspecies. Subspecies can be difficult to identify in the field. Only report subspecies based on observed field marks, not based only on expected geography (e.g. assuming all Dark-eyed Juncos are Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)). The following species have commonly occurring subspecies in our area that you might consider identifying and reporting:
- Cackling Goose
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Savannah Sparrow
- Fox Sparrow
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Red Crossbill
The following subspecies are not expected and require documentation (photos, detailed text descriptions of multiple characters):
- Green-winged Teal (Eurasian)
- Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted OR Intergrades)
- Dark-eyed Junco (any subspecies other than Oregon)
Evening Compilation
The CBC night compilation will be held in Fleischmann Auditorium and we are also planning on a parallel Zoom session. See the Reminders page for details.
Links and Downloadable Forms
- CASB Count Circle Map – the boundaries of our count circle
- Main eBird web site
- eBird data entry app
- a good how-to video on using eBird for data entry,
- eBird Essentials course.
- CBC125 Word Checklist with Participant Form (for non-eBirders)
- Google spreadsheet 125 CASB TALLY for real-time updates in the field (TO BE POSTED JUST BEFORE CBC).
Target Species for Santa Barbara CBC 125 (1/4/2025) Scouting
Below is a collection of species that can be challenging to find on count day, and that can be targeted for scouting. If you find any of these species, please report it on eBird (preferred), SBCoBirding, or Santa Barbara Birders Slack. To see if these species have already been reported, go to https://bit.ly/sb-cbc-125.
- Ross’s Goose
- Greater White-fronted Goose
- Wood Duck
- Blue-winged Teal
- Eurasian Wigeon
- Greater Scaup
- Common Merganser
- Mountain Quail
- Greater Roadrunner
- Costa’s Hummingbird
- Virginia Rail
- Wilson’s Snipe
- Iceland Gull
- Elegant Tern
- American Bittern
- Yellow-crowned Night Heron
- Northern Pygmy-Owl
- Burrowing Owl
- Northern Saw-whet Owl
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- Red-naped Sapsucker
- Mountain Chickadee
- Horned Lark
- Tree Swallow
- Violet-green Swallow
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Phainopepla
- Brown Creeper
- Rock Wren
- Pacific Wren
- Mountain Bluebird
- Townsend’s Solitaire
- Varied Thrush
- Cassin’s Finch
- Red Crossbill
- Pine Siskin
- Lawrence’s Goldfinch
- Lark Sparrow
- Chipping Sparrow
- White-throated Sparrow
- Vesper Sparrow
- Orchard Oriole
- Hooded Oriole
- Bullock’s Oriole
- Baltimore Oriole
- Tricolored Blackbird
- Nashville Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
- Black-throated Gray Warbler
- Hermit Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Summer Tanager
- Western Tanager
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Black-headed Grosbeak
124th SB CBC Results Notes
- Sea-watches from land found the following pelagic species: Black-Vented Shearwater, Surf Scoter, Red-throated, Common and Pacific Loons.
- Owling efforts produced Spotted, Northern Saw-whet, Western Screech, Barn, and Great Horned species.
- Nine less-common warbler species were found: Lucy’s, Chestnut-sided, Macgillivray’s, Black-and-White, Nashville, Hermit, Black-throated Gray, Wilson’s and Yellow.
- Five oriole species were found: Bullock’s, Orchard, Hooded, Baltimore and Scott’s.
- The wintering Warbling Vireo, back for its 11th year at Bohnett Park, was seen in late November, but not on count day or during count week. The “ancient” vireo was refound shortly after count week.
-
Some of the species seen during this montane year including Red Crossbill were found on count day.
Notable misses (excluding pelagics) are listed below. Some of these were recorded during Count Week but not on Count Day:
- White-tailed Kite
- Northern Pygmy-Owl
- Burrowing Owl
- Rock Wren
- Wilson’s Snipe
- Redhead
- Caspian Tern
- Tennessee Warbler
Thanks for your interest,
Libby Patten, Liz Muraoka, Glenn Kincaid, Conor McMahon, Linus Blomqvist and Mark Holmgren
SB CBC Coordinators
123rd SB CBC Results Notes:
Saturday’s Santa Barbara CBC (12/31/22) was one for the record-books—unfortunately not in species numbers but in the amount of rain falling on count day. Most of the count circle had at least 2.5 inches of rain, with mountain areas over 4 inches. But 150+ birders dug out their raincoats and logged a total of 196 species. This number is a bit lower than our usual species count but a respectable total given the weather conditions.
Some highlights:
Despite grim sea watching conditions, birders by boat and on land found Pacific, Common, and Red-throated Loons, Surf, Black, and White-winged Scoters, Northern Fulmar, Parasitic Jaeger, Common Murre, and a Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater. Thanks to the ChannelKeeper vessel and captain Ben Pitterle for their efforts.
The long-staying Pacfic Golden-Plover was found at East Beach.
Owling efforts produced Spotted, Northern Saw-Whet, Western Sscreech, Barn, Great Horned, and Burrowing.
Two MacGillivray’s Warblers were found—the continuing bird at the Goleta Tech Park, and a new bird found while scouting Isla Vista.
The White-headed Woodpecker from the Goleta Tech Park was found at another of its sometime haunts, Bella Vista Open Space.
The downtown parking lot Tipu trees produced Lucy’s, Nashville, and Tennessee Warblers, and an apparent Hermit x Townsend’s Warbler hybrid. Another Tennessee was found in a Goleta backyard.
The wintering Warbling Vireo is back for its 10th year at Bohnett Park.
Three species of oriole in the count circle: Bullock’s, Orchard, and Hooded.
Notable misses, most weather-related. Many of these birds have been recorded during Count Week but not on Count Day.
- Short-eared Owl
- Winter Wren
- American Bittern
- Virginia Rail
- Tropical Kingbird
- Osprey
- Black-throated Gray Warbler
- Common Raven
- Williamson’s Sapsucker
- Greater Roadrunner
- White-throated Swift
Thanks as always to the efforts of our local and visiting birders for a memorable CBC. Anyone else considering new rain gear??
Download the Final Species List Here.
Rebecca Coulter
CASB Compiler
122nd CBC Results
The 122nd Audubon Christmas Bird Count (for Santa Barbara on January 1, 2022) is now in the books. Our final official tally is 194 species. State and national ranking for the total number of species is shown below. The full list of species and numbers of birds recorded for each is available at Audubon’s CBC web page.
The video of the compilation Zoom is HERE.
Species Count Circle
230 Matagorda/Mad Island Marsh, TX
211 San Diego, CA
200 Morro Bay, CA30194
195 Freeport, TX
194 Santa Barbara, CA
192 Guadalupe River Delta, TX
We knew when planning for this year’s CBC that it would be another socially distanced event, but we’re getting to be old hands at this, aren’t we? We changed our system for data compilation to leverage eBird, requiring more work by our participants but making data crunching much easier (thank you!). We hoped for rain to help quell the drought and perhaps boost bird abundance for the big day. The weeks of rain in December were a welcome relief, but as CBC approached, we wondered if it had been too much of a good thing. Fortunately, the weather for CBC was clear, crisp and delightful for birding, although the mountain teams were very chilly.
Our final species total of 194 was the lowest in decades and likely reflects many factors. Prolonged drought reduced the food supply that attracts and keeps birds around. Ironically, the significant rain we got just before the count was a mixed bag. It might have helped increase some waterfowl numbers, but mud made some mountain roads impassable, and birding-by-ear near rushing creeks was nearly impossible! Also, COVID continues to impact us. Although the number of participants was higher this year (172) than last (155), we had to scramble to cover areas when participants got sick at the last minute.
Of course, we still enjoyed the day immensely and had some nice highlights. These included the Warbling Vireo returning for its ninth winter at Bohnett Park (such a rare species in winter that we presume it’s the same individual there all these years), Painted Redstart at Rocky Nook Park (there since mid-December), Green-tailed Towhee at a new restoration area in Goleta, Plumbeous Vireo at Chase Palm Park, and Horned Lark at Lane Farms.
For the third year in a row, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was found at Goleta Beach. Amazingly, we found Lawrence’s Goldfinch, a bird we usually miss, at three different locations. A high count of American White Pelican (28 total) was found, also at three different spots. We counted seven owl species, including the less common Northern Pygmy, Spotted, Northern Saw-whet and Short-eared (which has been gracing More Mesa since late fall). The warbler count was lower than usual (10 versus 13 species) with rarer ones including Nashville, MacGillivray’s, Yellow, Black-throated Gray, and Wilson’s. Both Swamp Sparrow and Clay-colored Sparrow were found (La Cumbre Country Club and the Municipal Golf Course). The pelagic team had reasonably calm conditions on the channel, finding White-winged Scoter and Black Scoter. Among the seabirds, both Clark’s Grebe and Caspian Tern were missed, though routinely found in the past.
Orioles were scarce this year (only two Bullock’s), likely impacted by reduced eucalyptus bloom. Some other trends noted were big drops in Cedar Waxwing, European Starling, Eurasian Collared-Dove, House Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, American Coot and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Species that showed much higher than typical numbers included Brown Pelican and Brandt’s Cormorant.
This was not a montane year, so the CBC reflected that with only a few Pine Siskin. We saw no Red-breasted Nuthatch, Red Crossbill nor Townsend’s Solitaire. Brown Creeper was frustratingly elusive although several were found not long before and after the count.
Historical data and observations of longtime birders have seen the abundance and diversity of birds decline significantly over the years. About 10 percent of the species found this CBC were represented by a single individual. Some were birds we rarely get in winter, so were a happy surprise, but others used to be much easier to find (e.g. Sora). A final element in our low total species count is that we’ve greatly benefited for many years by amazing scouting prior to CBC, often by out-of- town birders of supreme skill. Again, COVID disrupted these scouting activities, leading to fewer unusual finds on CBC day. Other count circles (e.g. Matagorda County, Texas) also noted that their high count had a significant fraction of species in the single digits and so could be easily missed..
Thank you for your steadfast support of the CBC: Santa Barbara Audubon, the compiling team, mapping and data crunching experts, and all the birders who scout, mobilize, and inspire us to do it every year. Thank you!
121st CBC Results
January 2, 2021’s 121st Audubon Christmas Bird Count is now going into the books. Our final official tally is 206 species.
State and national ranking for the total number of species is shown below. The full list of species and numbers of birds recorded for each will be available soon at Audubon’s CBC web page.
Species Count Circle
223 Matagorda/Mad Island Marsh, TX
220 San Diego, CA
213 Guadalupe River Delta, TX
210 Freeport, TX
206 Santa Barbara, CA
202 Morro Bay, CA
We’ve heard it said in every possible way: 2020 was a year to remember. To that end, in October the CBC team began discussing how and whether to hold the count during a pandemic. We debated the pros and cons, and in mid-December decided to go ahead, with the thanks of many birders who were eloquent in their pleas to continue: It was no small gift to have something to look forward to in this year of canceled plans.
Our results were a wonderful surprise, considering the reduced number of participants (155 instead of the usual 225+). The final species total of 206 reflected a huge effort by dedicated birders who covered our count circle. There were many highlights: The male Tufted Duck returned for its eighth year, turning up at Rancho Goleta Lake; Mountain Quail were found at several places along Camino Cielo; two sea watch finds—Blacklegged Kittiwake and a Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater—were a great surprise (identified only to genus level but countable!).
For the second year in a row, Yellow-crowned Night-heron was present at Goleta Beach, and American White Pelican surprised everyone at Lake Los Carneros, as did a Least Bittern discovered there at dusk. We counted seven owl species, including the more uncommon Northern Pygmy, Burrowing, Spotted, and Northern Saw-whet. (The Short-eared was not seen on the day, but at this writing it still continues at More Mesa.) The Warbling Vireo returned for its eighth winter at Bohnett Park. (This species is so rare in winter that we presume it is the same individual favoring the same small park year after year.) Hammond’s Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatcher and Eastern Phoebe made a great flycatcher show; mountain species were represented by Pygmy Nuthatch and Townsend’s Solitaire at La Cumbre Peak. A Lawrence’s Goldfinch was heard calling repeatedly overhead at the Santa Barbara Harbor as a keen-eared birder made his way to the boat for pelagic duty. An unexpected late addition of Pacific Wren in a Goleta backyard came from a savvy birder watching the local listserv for reports. Grasshopper Sparrow was found at San Marcos Foothills preserve, and orioles turned up after scarce reports leading to count day: two Hooded at private residences, and Bullock’s, and Baltimore were also found. Black-and-White Warbler was found at UCSB although very few had been seen around the circle lately. Tennessee, Nashville, MacGillivray’s, Yellow, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Black-throated Gray, and Wilson’s Warblers were all found around the circle after great scouting prior to count day.
Except for the pelagic rarities above, despite calm conditions on the channel, seabirds were few: Clark’s Grebe, Bonaparte’s Gull, Forster’s Tern and Caspian Tern were all missed on count day, though Clark’s Grebe and Forster’s Tern were seen during count week. Other birds recorded during count week were Short-eared Owl, Lucy’s Warbler (actually seen count day, too, but just outside the boundary!), and Hermit Warbler.
Thank you for your steadfast support of the CBC: Santa Barbara Audubon, the compiling team, mapping and data crunching experts, Zoom gurus, and all the birders who scout, mobilize, and inspire us to do it every year.
Thank you.
Rebecca Coulter, Liz Muraoka, Joan Murdoch and Libby Patten
SB CBC Coordinators
Species totals from the 91st count through the 124th count
34 year average is 206.6 species
| Count Year | CBC Number | Species Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 124 | 194 | Affected by recent heavy rain, beach debris and cancelled pelagic boat. |
| 2022 | 123 | 196 | Affected by historically heavy rain. |
| 2021 | 122 | 194 | Continuing drought and some low coverage from pandemic. |
| 2020 | 121 | 206 | The pandemic year, 30% fewer participants. |
| 2019 | 120 | 203 | Low numbers of common local land birds. |
| 2018 | 119 | 197 | affected by fog, clouds and rain |
| 2017 | 118 | 203 | affected by recent fire and dense fog |
| 2016 | 117 | 196 | lowest in over 25 years, and first under 200 since 96th count, affected by rain |
| 2015 | 116 | 212 | |
| 2014 | 115 | 214 | |
| 2013 | 114 | 222 | 2nd highest count, one of just two over 220 |
| 2012 | 113 | 213 | |
| 2011 | 112 | 215 | tied for 4th highest for this period |
| 2010 | 111 | 211 | |
| 2009 | 110 | 216 | 3rd highest for this period |
| 2008 | 109 | 209 | |
| 2007 | 108 | 206 | |
| 2006 | 107 | 224 | *our highest count in our history* |
| 2005 | 106 | 200 | heavily affected by rain |
| 2004 | 105 | 200 | affected by rain |
| 2003 | 104 | 208 | |
| 2002 | 103 | 210 | |
| 2001 | 102 | 206 | |
| 2000 | 101 | 208 | |
| 1999 | 100 | 213 | |
| 1998 | 99 | 211 | |
| 1997 | 98 | 208 | |
| 1996 | 97 | 215 | tied for 4th highest for this period |
| 1995 | 96 | 198 | |
| 1994 | 95 | 203 | |
| 1993 | 94 | 200 | |
| 1992 | 93 | 198 | |
| 1991 | 92 | 201 | |
| 1990 | 91 | 214 | 5th highest for this period |
Santa Barbara County Christmas Bird Count Information
Every year, around the time of Christmas, people all over the nation and many other countries go out on their chosen day to count their local birds. If you are looking for previous years results, take a look at Audubon’s National CBC web page. You can also view California’s CBCs at the Nature Alley page.
The 5 CBC count circles can be viewed at https://goo.gl/uYSN9f
Santa Barbara County is lucky enough to have 5 count circles in which you can participate. Below you will find the available information for each the county’s CBC’s. Check back often as we get near the end of the year, because information often changes.
Christmas Bird Count #125
Santa Barbara County Dates and Contacts
Santa Barbara Christmas Bird Count
Cachuma Christmas Bird Count
The Date is Friday December 27th, 2024
Contact: Cruz Phillips at email hidden; JavaScript is required or 805.245.8331
Carpinteria Christmas Bird Count
The Date is Saturday December 14th, 2024
Contact: John Callender at e-Mail or see the website
Santa Maria / Guadalupe Christmas Bird Count
The Date is Sunday December 29th, 2024
Contact: John Deacon at email hidden; JavaScript is required">e-Mail or (805)314-8201
La Purisima (Lompoc) Christmas Bird Count
The Date is Sunday December 15th – this could change if a
launch is scheduled that day. Check back for updates.
Contact: Alex Abela at e-Mail or (805)934-2873
