The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a tradition going back to a pair of adventurous birders in 1921 and has grown into an annual outing with over a hundred participants scouring Hamilton for every bird that can be found and identified.

Each CBC is conducted within the bounds of a standardized circle of 24.14km (15 miles). The Hamilton CBC is centered upon Dundurn Castle, the Peach Tree CBC circle encompasses much of the space between the Hamilton circle and the St. Catharine’s circle, and the Flamborough CBC circle exists between the Hamilton and Guelph circles. If your backyard birdfeeder falls into one of these zones, you can count them!

• The 105th Hamilton Christmas Bird Count will be on Friday December 26, 2025 >> SIGN UP
• The 5th Flamborough Christmas Bird Count will be on Tuesday December 30, 2025 >> SIGN UP
• The 11th Peach Tree Christmas Bird Count will be on Sunday January 4, 2026 >> to register please email cmtrain@cmotherwell.com.

Please try to register by December 8, 2025; late registrants will be asked to join to existing groups or the ‘clean up’ crews. Each CBC must be registered for separately this year – we are using a new system provided by the Audubon to better automate CBCs across the continent.

We strongly encourage the use of eBird for data submission – share your checklists with hamiltoncbc and make sure to still record distance travelled, size of party, and time spent! Reach out to hamilton.bird.count@gmail.com or the HNC Discord if you have any questions.

Are you interested in helping coordinate the Christmas Bird Counts? Help is needed with: assigning counters to zones (email correspondence), connecting zone/group leaders with other counters, promoting the count to the birding community, and coordinating backyard feeder counts. If interested, please email hamilton.bird.count@gmail.com

Past Reports

Peach Tree Christmas Bird Count

1st Peach Tree CBC (2016)