the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count
A Short History
The Bronx County Bird Club, consisting of nine teenaged boys, the oldest 17, conducted the first Bronx County Christmas Bird Count, then called a Bird Census. The club formed officially on Nov 29, 1924 and their first official order of business was the Christmas Bird Census, which would take place on Sunday, December 28, 1924. The boys were already expert birders. They had been birding separately for years before they came across each other birding in the same Bronx hot spots. Some are still hot spots today: Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park while others have disappeared like the Hunts Point Dump and the Baychester marshes. For their first Christmas Bird Census, the boys devised the strategy of dividing themselves into teams, each responsible for a specific territory. That strategy, which allows more territory to be covered and more thoroughly, is still in use today.
Their expertise was quickly noticed by Ludlow Griscom, who headed the Linnaean Society. Griscom, an assistant curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History was an acknowledged leader in field identification. Griscom’s Birds of the New York City Region, published in 1923, was the boys’ Bible.
In January 1927, Roger Tory Peterson moved from Jamestown, NY to study at the Art Students League in NYC. Peterson found the Bronx County Bird Club through the Linnaean Society – and despite the original rule against non-residents - he became the first member who didn’t live in the Bronx. It was Griscom’s guide that inspired Peterson to begin planning his own. He left New York to teach near Boston in 1931, continued to work on his field guide, and published it in 1934.
Of all Bronx County Bird Club members, the lifework of two members - Roger Tory Peterson and Allan Cruickshank – stands out. Peterson’s Field Guide became a classic, and is still in use, 7 editions later. Allan Cruickshank became a leading bird photographer, amassing a collection of 40,000 negatives representing over 400 species.
Cruikshank and Peterson returned for Bronx County Christmas Bird Counts even after they were no longer living in the New York area.
In 1940, a new count circle was drawn; lower Westchester is included. It became the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count.
The 9 teen-aged boys who did the first Bronx Christmas Bird Census, were they alive today would be astounded by how the count has evolved. In 2019, there were 134 participants – the highest number so far. In 1927, the combined list of all birds seen on all counts was 100; today the combined list of all species ever seen on Bronx-Westchester Christmas Counts is 236.