2020 Christmas Bird Count – 26 December 2020
| Species tallied | 52 species |
| Individual Birds: | 7219 birds |
| Observers: | 196 feeder watchers at 138 unique locations |
Overview:
This round of the Seattle Christmas Bird Count will always be ‘the one with the asterisk.’ As with so much else in 2020, the Covid pandemic called for a different approach. Rather than risk putting participants at risk, this year the CBC was limited entirely to observers watching feeders from their own yard. No outside walks through parks and neighborhoods, and no social potluck afterwards. Instead, we limited ourselves to the feeder-watch protocols that have become an important complement to the usual in-field CBC teams. (We did manage a ‘zoom potluck’ though for the species rollcall by Neil Zimmerman – some traditions must be maintained!)
As such, all numbers are of course much lower than our normal Seattle CBC numbers. Whereas last year we tallied 124 species and over 50,000 individual birds, this year our total was 52 species and 7219 individuals. Participation was remarkable for such a different style — we had 196 participants this year, 2/3 of the total from last year.
Five species accounted for 55% of the total number of birds seen:
Pine Siskin (1023), American Crow (925), Dark-eyed Junco (841), Bushtit (703), European Starling (465).
Matt Bartels
Seattle CBC compiler
Species Recorded During 2020 Seattle CBC (Feederwatch)
| Cackling Goose (235) | Hairy Woodpecker (3) | Varied Thrush (4) |
| Mallard (4) | Northern Flicker (108) | European Starling (465) |
| Common Goldeneye (3) | Pileated Woodpecker (4) | House Sparrow (108) |
| Common Merganser (4) | Merlin (2) | House Finch (371) |
| Trumpeter Swan (5) | Steller’s Jay (90) | Purple Finch (22) |
| duck sp. (80) | California Scrub Jay (10) | Pine Siskin (1023) |
| Rock Pigeon (141) | American Crow (925) | American Goldfinch (187) |
| Band-tailed Pigeon (20) | Common Raven (1) | Fox Sparrow (22) |
| Anna’s Hummingbird (254) | Black-capped Chickadee (302) | Dark-eyed Junco (841) |
| Ring-billed Gull (2) | Chestnut-backed Chickadee (86) | White-crowned Sparrow (42) |
| California Gull (1) | Bushtit (703) | Golden-crowned Sparrow (113) |
| Glaucous-winged Gull (88) | Red-breasted Nuthatch (67) | White-throated Sparrow (5) |
| gull sp. (98) | Brown Creeper (6) | Song Sparrow (124) |
| Double-crested Cormorant (28) | Pacific Wren (2) | Spotted Towhee (97) |
| Great Blue Heron (1) | Bewick’s Wren (106) | Red-winged Blackbird (4) |
| Cooper’s Hawk (9) | Golden-crowned Kinglet (9) | Orange-crowned Warbler (5) |
| Baled Eagle (16) | Ruby-crowned Kinglet (22) | Yellow-rumped Warbler (20) |
| Red-breasted Sapsucker (1) | Hermit Thrush (2) | Townsend’s Warbler (25) |
| Downy Woodpecker (14) | American Robin (294) | |
| Total Species: 52 | ||
Cedar Waxwings and the Space Needle © Tiffany Linbo