Working Towards an IDEAL CBC 2025 Update

Last year, we embarked on an exciting journey to make the annual Christmas Bird Count, or CBC, more accessible to all birders in our community. With the support from National Audubon and a team of scholars at North Carolina State University, I participated in a months-long program called IDEAL Participatory Sciences and worked with CBC compilers and coordinators from across the country to adapt Birds Connect Seattle’s CBC programming to better fit our local urban community.

• After discovering that many participants were intimidated by the long, full-day count routes, we split two existing routes into shorter, more digestible schedules, allowing for more half-day count options.
• We created an advisory board of women and gender-expansive individuals between the ages of 18-39 to brainstorm the many ways in which we could make CBC more inviting to folks like them. It was through these conversations that we were able to recruit three people from this focal group to become leaders or co-leaders within the Seattle CBC circle.
• Two routes were designated specifically for certain members of our volunteer pool, with the Lake Union/Queen Anne route being specifically for young adults under the age of 40, and the Montlake Fill/UBNA route reserved for BIPOC volunteers

• The Ravenna West route will be designated for LGBTQIA+ volunteers
• Move the after-count gathering to a slightly more central location (Reuben’s Brews Barrel House in Ballard)
• Split two more routes (Southwest Seattle and Green Lake) to allow for shorter, more enjoyable count days.
• Welcome additional people into leadership roles! Would you like to be a CBC leader? Reach out!