Biological Projects

Public Bird Counts:

Togiak National Wildlife Refuge staff coordinate a wide variety of public bird counts in the Dillingham area. We have organized Christmas Bird Counts, Great Backyard Bird Counts, North American Migration Counts, and World Bird Counts.

Christmas Bird Count

Staff at the Togiak Refuge have coordinated Dillingham's Annual Christmas Bird Count since 1993. This is part of a coast-to-coast bird count where volunteers count every bird during a single day. Participants trek out on foot, skis, snowshoes, or snowmachine to search for birds during daylight hours. Birds are counted within a 15-mile diameter circle which includes Dillingham, Kanakanak, Wood River and parts of Warehouse Mountain. People can also count birds at their feeders or go owling before dawn. Local participation is key to the success of these counts.

The Christmas Bird Count has a long history. It began in 1900, when 27 conservationists decided to count birds instead of shooting them as bad been the holiday tradition. Today, the National Audubon Society coordinates more than 1,800 Christmas Bird Count routes which are conducted in all 50 states, every Canadian province, South America and the Pacific Islands. In recent years more than 50,000 people have participated annually.

Data from eight years of Christmas Bird Counts at Togiak Refuge are displayed below:

More recent data from local Christmas Bird Counts is available through our office.

For more information on the Christmas Bird Count, including history, objectives, and data, visit the Christmas Bird Count website.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Staff at the Togiak Refuge have coordinated Dillingham's Annual Great Backyard Bird Count since 1999. This is part of a coast-to-coast bird count where volunteers count every bird during a four day timeframe. It count is sponsored by the National Audubon Society and was first started in 1998. This count provides an immense snapshot of the distribution and population status of birds that winter throughout the continent, and will add to a long-term database to detect broad scale changes in bird populations. This information will compliment the bird data collected during the Christmas Bird Count and the North American Migration Count. Local participation is key to the success of these counts.

Data from four Great Backyard Bird Counts in Dillingham are presented below:

More recent data from local Great Backyard Bird Counts is available through our office.

For more information on the Great Backyard Bird Count, including instructions on how to count and results of counts, visit the Great Backyard Bird Count website.

North American Migration Count

Staff at the Togiak Refuge have coordinated Dillingham's Annual North American Migration Count since 1997. The count is run by Boreal Partners in Flight, an international coalition comprised of 12 different organizations, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Local participation is key to the success of these counts.

The North American Migration Count is part of a continental bird count in which volunteers count birds during a single day. Like the Christmas Bird Count and the Great Backyard Bird Count this count is set up to use "Citizen Scientists." By involving birders from the public, we can gather a vast amount of data in widespread areas that could not be covered by local biologists. This count provides an overview of the distribution and population status of birds on their migration routes throughout the continent and will add to a long-term database to detect broad scale changes in bird populations.

Data from six Annual North American Migration Counts in Dillingham are presented below:

More recent data from local North American Migration Counts is available through our office.

The North American Migration Count is part of International Migratory Bird Day. For more on International Migratory Bird Day, visit the USFWS International Migratory Bird Day website.

World Bird Count

Staff at the Togiak Refuge have coordinated Dillingham's Annual World Bird Count since 2000. This bird count runs through the month of October, with birds recorded at any time during the month. Participants can count for any length of time desired, from attending one single birding event, up to recording birds every day of the month.

The World Bird Count was established by the Japanese telephone cooperative NTT to promote environmental awareness through birding and the appreciation of nature. Since the first World Bird Count in 1995, more than 569,000 people have participated, with events organized in many parts of the world.

Through this event, NTT is establishing a worldwide communication network on birds and conservation. To help conservation projects for birds in Asia, NTT donates 1,000 Japanese Yen to BirdLife International for each species that is reported in the World Bird Count, up to a maximum of 5 million Yen. The donation from the first five World Bird Counts has been used by BirdLife International to promote the conservation of bird habitats and to help develop a database system to store the information collected by its conservation projects.

Dillingham's Annual World Bird Count is a success due to the local participation we have. We have recorded upwards of 61 bird species during this count, which typically attracts 30 or more observers.

For more information regarding these public bird counts, contact the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.