More than 4,700 individual birds from 28 different species were seen in Algonquin Park during the annual Christmas Bird Count.
That’s according to the Friends of Algonquin Park, which says an average of 4,500 individual birds from 25 species are seen each year. Seventy-six volunteers took part in the count, which was held on Saturday.
Over 1,100 black-capped chickadees were seen in the park, the most of any species. For the first time ever during the bird count, a Merlin was also observed in Algonquin Park.
Algonquin Park’s Christmas Bird Count coincides with other bird counts held across Canada and the US between December 14th and January 5th each year. The data that is collected allows researchers to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.
