Central Bucks Christmas Bird Count Narrative

Author: Diane Allison

December 28, 2025

This year was an interesting count.  The weather was not optimum in that some of the more northern parts of our count had a slick coating of ice.  Temperatures were not bad with a low of 21 degrees and a high of 32 and no wind.  I thought with the conditions that some groups may not go out and while some were unable to do much walking due to icy conditions, all areas were covered and we ended up setting an all time high for field observers with 64 folks getting out to count birds.  Thanks to everyone that contributed, we had our second best all time species count with 94 species!!  While our hours and miles did not set any records our finds were fantastic.  The excellent collection of waterfowl certainly helped our overall species count and several new high counts were achieved in the waterfowl including (50 ) Buffleheads that bested the previous high of (46) in 2021, Hooded Mergansers (37) also set a new high beating out the previous high of (18) in 2007 and the single Red-breasted Merganser joined the other 6 years where a single bird was found.

Other species achieved new high counts as well including Red-shouldered Hawk (24), this species has increased dramatically in the last few years.  Prior to 2018 there were only single digits of Red-shoulders and very early on there were many years where they were missed.  After 2018 they began to increase and be more reliable and since 2022 the numbers have risen dramatically.  On the other hand Red-tailed Hawks (59) are trending below average over the last several years with their all time high being (157) back in 2002.  The trends of these two species are interesting in the case of Red-shoulders and concerning in the case of Red-tails.    Woodpeckers were also interesting this year- Red-bellied Woodpeckers (241), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (35), and Pileated Woodpecker (27) all reached new high counts and all the woodpecker species were above average.  Red-breasted Nuthatch (49) is a new high trouncing a previous high of (30) in both 1981 and 1985.  Red-winged Blackbird (1058) also reached a new high count.  Gulls were nearly all below average .  Fish Crows (2) have not gotten out of single digits for a number of years, while Raven (22) and Bluejays (590) numbers were solid.  Wild Turkeys (1) are way below the average of (49).  They have been found in 30 years out of the 60 years as they were non-existent on the count until 1990 and the high count of (187) was in 1995.  We missed them totally last year.

Some other interesting finds included the second time for Lincoln’s Sparrow (1) in the history of the count and for only the 7th time a Dickcissel (1) was found with the last being in 2004, The single Eastern Phoebe (1) and the single Pine Warbler (1) which was only the 4th time for those, were all great additions.  The (4) White-crowned Sparrows were a welcome addition after missing them last year and missing them 4 years  out of the last 7.  They have become hard to find.  It is always nice to have Eastern Towhee (7), and Pine Siskin (9) as they are not a given on the count.

With a species count of 94, there were not a lot of misses to go over in this report, pretty much all the expected species were found.  Thanks again to everyone for all your efforts. As always- any questions just reach out to me- 267-733-3868, dalliso@mail.ptd.net  Diane Allison- Central Bucks CBC Compiler

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR NEXT YEAR- SUNDAY DECEMBER 27TH, 2026.