Most of you have participated in Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) sponsored by the National Audubon Society. The NORTH AMERICAN MIGRATION COUNT is like the CBC, but with a few twists. The rules are simple: spend a day in the field counting birds in a specified area, and keep track of hours & miles by foot, car, boat, or feeder watching. The area for any one count is not a 15-mile diameter circle, but an entire county. The big twist is the timing: unlike CBC's, which are spread over several weeks, this count is done on just a SINGLE DAY across the entire 48 states.

Where does the North American Migration Count take place? 

The boundary of an individual county serves as a count area.  The idea is simple:  spread coverage to as many habitat types as possible to get at least an indication of presence/absence of a species.  Ideally coverage should be proportional to the area of the habitat in the county, but there will be a bias to getting into woodlands for spring warblers and spending less time looking at pasture. 

 
When is the North American Migration Count?

The  North American Migration Count consists of TWO annual counts:  the second Saturday in May, and the third Saturday in September.

 
What are the reporting guidelines?

Each County Coordinator should tabulate the results for their COUNTY, making sure that observers have reported hours and miles and supplied to your satisfaction details for unusual sightings.  County Coordinators should send their results to the State Coordinator.

 
In addition, four separate list are tallied:

	STATIONARY:  For cases where the observer stays in ONE place and counts birds which are mostly migrating by [e.g., a hawkwatch].
	FEEDER:  Those observers who attract birds to their yard and do ALL of their observations in or near their yard.  [In general, the observer does not move and the birds are more or less stationary.]
	REGULAR:  This is the most common list; it contains all of the birds found dawn-to-dusk (or any time you have available) by observers who are moving from place to place, by foot, car, boat, etc. [In general, the observers move and count birds which are more-or less stationary.]
	NIGHT:  Those birds seen or heard before dawn and after dusk.