Even if Fairbanks doesn't have a wide variety of bird species this time of the year, this didn't deter more than 100 Interior Alaska bird watchers from bundling up and heading out for the 48^th Annual Fairbanks Christmas Bird Count that took place on Saturday. Volunteers counted as many birds as possible, as the Fairbanks count covers nine regions, encompassing a 177 square mile circle centered on the city.

 

For the Ester region, count coordinator was biologist Philip Martin, who used a combination of driving and walking to find birds. He had counters using skis and others on dog sleds tracking birds in the region. Other counters included snow shoes, bikes or snow machines. He told the media he'll be lucky if he manages to spot more than 10 species.

 

Last year, the raven was the most common bird in the area, with 1,505 sightings in Fairbanks, while the redpolls were the second-most common with 1,204 views. The third place was taken by the black-capped chickadees with 1,011. Martin said that this count isn't an exact science, providing more like an index of what birds are present in the area and what kind of numbers have been noticed in the last few years.

 

The idea of the Count began on Christmas Day, in 1900. It was started by Frank Chapman of the National Audubon Society, being created in order to counter another bird-related tradition – hunters who would form teams to see who could kill the most birds in a single day. Nowadays, there are feeder watchers, as people who count birds that come to bird feeders, and a count week. During the count week, three days before and one day after the count day, additional birds seen or heard in the area are added to the list of species.