Snow geese, Canada geese most numerous species
A new record was broken in the birding world, according to officials at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society with partner Bird Studies Canada. By the end of the recording period, which wrapped up in mid-February, a record 127 countries had submitted bird checklists for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. Last year’s record was 110 countries.
The information, which is gathered by tens of thousands of volunteers over a four-day period, helps track the health of bird populations at a scale not otherwise possible. Checklists have come from Australia, China, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Iceland, India, Kenya and even Antarctica. In Canada, participants in British Columbia have racked up the highest provincial total (189) in that country. Participation in the Maritime Provinces is also up, with reports from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador.
As might be expected, the United States leads the list for numbers of checklists with 102,839 with 637 different species recorded. The most diversity recorded belongs to India, with 765 different species of birds in 2,913 checklists.
In North America, California sits atop the leader board with the most checklists (7,607) and the greatest number of species (354), followed closely by New York (7,161 and 164, respectively). Ontario, Canada has jumped into the Top 10 for checklists with 5,870 and 144 different species.
TOP 10 MOST NUMEROUS SPECIES
(Sum of how many individuals were observed across all checklists)
Species # of species
Snow Goose 1,195,722
Canada Goose 985,763
European Starling 516,723
Mallard 470,340
Red-winged Blackbird 446,496
Ring-billed Gull 409,660
American Coot 391,423
Dark-eye Junco 382,003
American Crow 307,629
American Goldfinch 303,025
OTHER COUNTRIES
Country # of species # of checklists
Canada 231 11,395
Australia 488 808
Mexico 632 377
Costa Rica 545 150
United Kingdom 154 146
Portugal 178 135
Puerto Rico 107 132
Honduras 316 99
OTHER STATES
State # of species # of checklists*
Pennsylvania 136 6,413
Texas 346 5,093
Florida 305 5,011
Ohio 137 4,747
Virginia 176 4,537
North Carolina 192 4,500
Michigan 127 3,687
*Kansas ranked 35th with 1,028 checklists submitted and 125 different species recorded.
2014 GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT
Top 10 Most Frequently Reported Species
Species # of checklists
Northern Cardinal 50,603
Dark-eyed Junco 48,195
Mourning Dove 41,587
Blue Jay 37,069
Downy Woodpecker 34,555
American Goldfinch 31,397
American Crow 30,452
Tufted Titmouse 30,230
House Finch 30,193
House Sparrow 28,980
