The annual Christmas Bird Count is one of birding’s most cherished traditions. This year, consider introducing the count to a child. There’s no better time to get a youngster started in birding.

“When I was a kid in a large family of eight kids in Upstate New York, my parents told us we could do anything that cost less than $5; baseball, boy scouts, or birding,” says Tom Rusert of Sonoma Birding. “I joined Junior Audubon with my brothers, not realizing it would be a life sport to enjoy forever. It really is no different than any other sport.”

So began a lifelong passion for birds and conservation for Russert. The Junior Audubon program flourished for thousands of kids in schools across the US starting in 1910 but died out in the 1970s, leaving a significant gap in children’s nature opportunities.

Rusert and his colleague Darren Peterie at Sonoma Birding and Bird Studies Canada, are giving this opportunity back to children through the Christmas Bird Count for Kids (CBC4Kids) with hundreds of half-day events across the US and Canada from December through mid -January. Each child must be accompanied by a parent or adult mentor.

Why Kids? Why Christmas?

People put their money where their heart is. Those who have childhood experiences in nature are more likely to support conservation.

“We reach out to families and kids during the holiday season when they’re often tied up with material goods,” Rusert explains. “There aren’t too many things that parents can do to really engage with their each other. Kids get into electronic devices and they’re gone. The CBC4Kids offers a refreshing old fashioned community based, fun experience”

The Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is one of the oldest ongoing citizen science projects in the US, a birding tradition that began on December 25, 1900 as a holiday Christmas Bird Census. The long-term data over a wide-ranging area now available from these counts has provided vital information for conservation science, from uncovering declines in common birds to revealing where birds have moved in response to climate change.

Binocular Bootcamp at Pepperwood Preserve in California. Photo © Steve Murdock

It was while planning for the Sonoma Birding CBC that Russert and Peterie got the idea for the CBC4Kids. Some of the adult participants felt that the CBC protocols were too rigorous for young children. Fourteen children were turned away with the promise that there would be a special birding event for them over Christmas and nine years ago this year, the CBC4Kids was born.

“If we don’t get kids interested and fired up about nature now, the CBC will be history,” Russert says. “It will go the same way as Junior Audubon.”

They built the CBC4Kids as a grassroots movement — any community based organization can host a CBC4Kids by following the playbook — and it has taken o like wildfire. Last year there were more than 125 events hosted by national parks, wildlife refuges, birding clubs, museums, nature centers, public libraries, schools and more. That number grows each year.

The Bird Conservancy of the Rocky Mountains – CBC4Kids gathered together. Photo courtesy of Tom Rusert

What to Expect

“This is all about the kids experiencing the outdoors,” Rusert notes. “We really want families to discover the excitement of identifying local birds and truly enjoy the life sport of birding.”

The dates of CBC4Kids events vary by location, so check with your local organizations and nature groups to see if they are planning an event. In Canada, check this events map. If you can’t find one in your area, consider contacting Sonoma Birding for advice on getting one started or sharing the playbook with a local nature or birding organization, many communities are looking for meaningful fun activities that get families outside during the winter.

At the event, kids first participate in a “Binocular Bootcamp” to learn the basics of focusing binoculars and following moving objects. They then divide into at least two teams and head out for just 90 minutes of birding. The birding teams use a limited checklist of commonly sighted species and must agree as a team on each species sighted. Each year the kids get to grow their overall bird list. When the teams return to the base of operations, the children tabulate the results on a spreadsheet and then a boy and girl representing each team report their observations to everyone assembled at a ceremony. The data is submitted to eBird,, a widely-used database of birding observations by citizen scientists. All information is reviewed by experienced adult birders before submission.

The half day celebration ends with a fun activity that children will remember — it could be listening to audio recordings of birds or having a visit from a live raptor — something that the family will still be talking about over dinner.

“It is critical that families learn about citizen science together and for our CBC4Kids to be fun and sustainable and have a life of its own in communities everywhere,” says Russert.“This was a great life gift from my mom and dad and it matters today for our feathered friends and us more than ever.”

Celebrating Sonoma’s Good Nature!
By Emily Charrier-Botts

The Sonoma Plaza is graced with 60 different types of trees, not to mention the many species of birds that make those trees home. Valley birder Tom Rusert worked with City Parks Supervisor Dave Chavoya and representatives of the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau to create a guide highlighting all of the ecological wonders of the Plaza that will help residents and visitors spot the difference between a Canary Island Palm and a California Fan Palm tree.

Called “Celebrate Sonoma’s Good Nature,” the brochure and map will be available at the visitors bureau in coming weeks, allowing the community to gain a better understanding of the natural beauty of California’s largest town square. “One of the things we are trying to do is bring new appreciation to this amazing asset,” Rusert said, adding that the Plaza is significant both ecologically and historically, making it a true treasure of the community. “Can you imagine how many important decisions have been made about California in this square? Very few cities can boast that they have all these elements in the same place.”

The map takes visitors on a full loop around the eight-acre square and includes the unique trees and birds that make up the Plaza. Because of the diverse range of trees, Rusert said the Plaza is truly an arboretum and should be celebrated as such. The map showcases 31 of the Plaza’s trees, which were selected as the best examples of various species.

“We couldn’t include every tree because it would be overwhelming, and there are repeats (of species of trees),” said Pat Pulvirenti, a visitors service representative at the visitors bureau, who helped create the map.
For wildlife enthusiasts, the brochure also includes a list of some of the common birds seen around the Plaza. “I worked with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory to determine what types of birds you’ll likely see in the Plaza,” Rusert said. “We’ve only scratched the surface. This is a wonderful, wonderful habitat for birds.”
For several years the visitors bureau has wanted to create a map of the Plaza trees. “We have so many visitors that walk into our office and say, ‘What type of tree is this?’ So the bureau began looking into a number of eco-tourism ventures,” said Wendy Peterson, the bureau’s executive director.
The bureau worked with the Sonoma Ecology Center to create a map, but it never came to fruition. Serendipitously, Rusert, proprietor of Sonomabirding.org, was interested in creating a bird guide for the Plaza, highlighting the birds that live and nest within the square.
“We just decided to meld the projects,” Pulvirenti said. “It’s become a wonderfully collaborative effort.”

As the parks supervisor, Chavoya had a working knowledge of the trees on the Plaza and the group used his expertise when compiling the information for the map.
Rusert said the map can also help the city make decisions about future trees on the square. Having a detailed list of what trees already live in the Plaza will allow city officials to bring even more plant diversity in coming years. “We can really think about what trees would make good additions,” Rusert said.
The map was the first of many steps Rusert hopes to take to promote eco-tourism in the Valley. Down the road, he hopes to create a nature kiosk in the Plaza to promote the maps. He has already begun to create similar nature maps for Maxwell Farms Regional Park and the Sonoma Overlook Trail.
“This is a basic list, we expect it will be expanded,” Rusert said.
Organizers are looking for community members to give the guide a try. “We’d like to encourage the locals to use the map and give us feedback so we can keep making it better,” said Pulvirenti.
Maps will be available at the visitors bureau soon, but no release date has been announced yet. Call the bureau at 996-1090 for more information or to provide feedback on the guides.

A pair of burrowing owls are happily making their winter home in a new habitat built in the Baylands by Sears Point by a couple dozen volunteers last weekend.

The project, hosted by SonomaBirding.com, the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network and Sonoma Land Trust, built four artificial habitats for the burrowing owl. The owls used to be a regular fixture in the Sonoma Valley but ceased breeding in the area more than 20 years ago for unknown reasons. The organizations are hoping that building an ideal habitat on protected land owned by the Sonoma Land Trust will encourage the birds to colonize the area.

School children built two habitats in the area over the summer, and volunteers learned last weekend that two burrowing owls had moved into the space.

“They just sat out and watched us for five hours while we worked,” said Tom Rusert of SonomaBirding.com.

Rusert said as soon as people left the immediate area, the birds hopped over to inspect their new digs, and quickly decided to stay.

By BWD editor Bill Thompson, III
Just like people, birds have certain food preferences. The good news for you is that people have been feeding birds for many decades, so you get the benefit of all that trial-and-error experimentation. These days, we, the bird-feeding public, already know what foods birds prefer. At the feeders this means seeds.

But which seeds are the best? In a nutshell, sunflower seed. So if you are just starting out in feeding, I suggest you buy some black-oil sunflower seed at a local hardware store, feed store, specialty bird store, or even at a major retail chain store.

There is a vast array of other foods you can offer birds besides birdseed. To view a few of the most commonly offered non-seed items that birds enjoy.

Following are the best kinds of seed, in descending order of popularity.

Black-oil Sunflower

Gray- or white-striped sunflower seed used to be the king of the bird foods. Now it’s black-oil sunflower seed. Smaller than gray-striped sunflower seed, with a thin, all-black, papery shell, black-oil seed can be cracked by sparrows, juncos, and even small-billed goldfinches. It’s a better buy, too, because 70 percent of each seed is meat, compared with only 57 percent for striped sunflower. Its high oil and fat content helps birds get through cold winter nights. Black-oil sunflower seed is the heart of any feeding program because it’s accepted by the greatest variety of birds. You can feed it out of hanging feeders, in hoppers, on tables, or scattered on the ground-preferably all of the above.

Sunflower Hearts

If I were to pick only one food to offer at my feeding station, it would be sunflower hearts. Yes, they are expensive, but a bag of sunflower hearts (no shells, just the meat of the seed) lasts more than three times as long as a bag of seeds with shells. Not only that, every species that comes to my feeding station will eat them. Being hullless, hearts are accessible to weaker-billed birds like siskins, redpolls, and Carolina wrens. Goldfinches love them.

Compared with seeds with hulls, hearts are relatively free of waste and of the messy shells that pile up to smother grass and rot decks. The only drawback is that the hearts should not be exposed to wet weather; thus, they should be fed only from feeders. They rot quickly when damp. On dry days, it’s fine to spread a handful on the bird table, but otherwise, stick to weatherproof feeders. You’ll be surprised how little it takes to feed a lot of birds.

Mixed Seed

Mixed seed, often generically referred to as “wild birdseed,” is a vital addition to any feeding program. But not all mixes are created equal, and what is eagerly eaten in Arizona can go to waste in New York. A prime example is milo, a round, reddish seed that looks like a BB pellet. You’ll see it, along with wheat, oats, and even barley, in grocery-store mixes. In the East, milo and wheat are spurned by most birds except blackbirds and doves. In the West, however, quail, doves, towhees, and sparrows eagerly eat milo.

Millet

Millet is a main ingredient in most mixed bird seed. White proso millet is a little, round, shiny cream-colored seed. It’s a staple for most sparrows and juncos, as well as doves, Carolina wrens, thrashers, and cardinals.

Cracked Corn

Another common ingredient of good mixed seed is cracked corn, which is accepted by most birds after the sunflower and millet are gone. Cracked corn is the cheapest and best offering for quail, pheasants, and doves,but it is irresistible to blackbirds, cowbirds, grackles, and house sparrows. If you’re inundated by these less desirable birds, you may want stop offering corn.

The third ingredient of a good mix is our old buddy, black-oil sunflower seed. Peanut hearts, which are small, rather bitter byproducts of peanut processing, make birdseed mixes smell good (which is nice for us), boost the price (which is nice for retailers), and may appeal to chickadees, titmice, jays, and wrens. Peanut hearts are not vital because, in my experience, the sunflower always goes first anyway. This is not to devalue whole peanuts as a food–they can be great if offered in the right feeder.

Peanuts

In Europe, peanuts have been a staple of bird feeding for years. But peanuts have become popular for bird feeding in North America just in the past decade. Peanuts are a vital part of my feeding program. Woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, creepers, titmice, and wrens are among the birds favoring peanuts. The peanuts we use for bird feeding are rejects from the cocktail peanut trade. They are out of the shell and usually roasted but not salted.

When offered in the shell, only crows, jays, and the occasional clever titmouse can really exploit them, because peanuts are just too big and cumbersome for most birds to crack open. Better feed and birdseed stores, though, sell raw shelled peanuts in bulk. If you can’t find these in your area, you can buy the cheapest unsalted roasted cocktail peanuts (sold in cans or jars) at your grocery store.

Offered in wire mesh tube feeders, in mesh bags, or in hopper and platform feeders, peanuts are an incredibly popular food, especially in harsh winter weather. They offer a great high-protein boost to winter-weary birds and help insect eaters like wrens, woodpeckers, and sometimes even sapsuckers make it through. Peanuts can be subject to mold in hot, wet weather. Check them often for signs of black mold or the darkening in color that can mean they’ve gone rancid. Offer only as many as the birds will eat in a few days in warmer weather.

Thistle/Niger/Nyjer

Niger, or thistle seed (now sometimes referred to by the commercial name of Nyjer) is imported from Africa and Asia. The seed is sterilized, so it won’t germinate in North America. Thistle seed requires a special feeder style, one that has small openings sized to accommodate the tiny seeds but still permit birds to gain access to the seed. Thistle seed can be somewhat expensive and is subject to mold, especially in hot, damp weather. To avoid this, shake your feeders every time you fill them to be sure the seed is coming out of the ports properly. If the seed clumps, you may have to dump it out where the birds won’t find it and wash and dry your feeder before refilling it. Fine mesh nylon thistle “socks” are a cheap way to feed Niger, and they let air circulate around the seed. If you don’t mind paying a bit more per pound, thistle/Niger seed will really attract finches and siskins to your feeders.

Safflower

Safflower is a white, shiny conical seed that’s gaining popularity among people who find that cardinals like it and some squirrels and grackles don’t. The operative word in that statement is some. Lots of squirrels love safflower seed. Safflower seed is usually found in bulk at better feed stores. You can offer it in any feeder that dispenses sunflower seed or scatter it on the ground to attract cardinals (who aren’t much for perching on tube feeders). Safflower seed is nice to offer, but not vital; any bird that will eat safflower will also take sunflower seed.