Bird watching enthusiasts here in central Alberta are probably well aware of the 2018 Christmas Bird Count coming up this Sunday, December 23rd, 2018.

For those who are not budding ornithologists, no need to worry, you can participate in the annual bird count that's been happening roughly around the same time for over 100 years.

Judy Boyd is the Secretary of Red Deer River Naturalists Society, and also the Count Compiler for the bird count in this area, and she says long-term bird counts are the only way to accurately gauge how a certain population is doing.

“You have to look at many years to see what the trends are, like if every year the population of a certain bird is going down, down, down, then you know that population is not doing well. So it’s a way to see the health of the populations, long-term.”

Boyd says the only way to get bird population numbers that can show long-term trends, is to get help from the public to count as many birds as they can, within specific areas.

“You can do as much or as little as you want. A lot of people just count the birds at their feeders. We have circles, we have 28 circles, they are 15km diameter circles mapping out central Alberta, and you can get that zone and just drive around that entire zone and count all the birds that are in that zone.”

For more information on how you can participate in the bird count, you can click here to head to the Red Deer River Naturalists Society’s website.