*The 104th Syracuse Christmas Bird Count* 16 December 2023
This year’s Syracuse Christmas Bird Count (CBC) occurred on Saturday, 16 December . . . and it was a record-breaker. We encountered a total of 93 species, surpassing our last record of 89 species in 2018. Our 30-year average is ~75 species. Highlights included a Ross’s Goose (a first for our count) as well as many late warblers – notably Yellow, Tennessee, and Common Yellowthroat!! Black Vultures were detected for the second year in a row. It’s worth noting the species that were not detected this year: Wood Duck, scoter spp., Sharp-shinned Hawk, Brown-headed Cowbird, Purple Finch, and a few others. Below is the complete list of birds detected: *Species TOTAL * *Ross’s Goose 1* Snow Goose 1850 Canada Goose 2587 Mute Swan 31 Tundra Swan 62 Gadwall 10 American Wigeon 4 American Black Duck 10 Mallard 470 Northern Shoveler 2 Redhead 334 Ring-necked Duck 2 Greater Scaup 7 Lesser Scaup 179 Bufflehead 49 Common Goldeneye 45 Hooded Merganser 17 Common Merganser 658 Red-breasted Merganser 67 Ring-necked Pheasant 2 Ruffed Grouse 1 Wild Turkey 40 Common Loon 5 Horned Grebe 1 Double-crested Cormorant 47 Great Blue Heron 8 Turkey Vulture 112 Black Vulture 5 Northern Harrier 3 Cooper’s Hawk 5 Bald Eagle 14 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 42 American Coot 16 Killdeer 2 Wilson’s Snipe 1 Ring-billed Gull 1523 Herring Gull 85 Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 Great Black-backed Gull 21 Rock Pigeon (Feral) 934 Mourning Dove 289 Eastern Screech-Owl 2 Barred Owl 2 Belted Kingfisher 8 Red-bellied Woodpecker 81 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 5 Downy Woodpecker 136 Hairy Woodpecker 29 Northern Flicker (ys) 53 Pileated Woodpecker 14 American Kestrel 3 Merlin 4 Peregrine Falcon 1 Blue Jay 219 American Crow 3116 Fish Crow 22 Common Raven 6 Black-capped Chickadee 461 Tufted Titmouse 97 Red-breasted Nuthatch 9 White-breasted Nuthatch 156 Brown Creeper 6 Winter Wren 8 Marsh Wren 5 Carolina Wren 45 Golden-crowned Kinglet 28 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Eastern Bluebird 64 Hermit Thrush 2 American Robin 891 Northern Mockingbird 17 European Starling 5017 Cedar Waxwing 62 Snow Bunting 6 Common Yellowthroat 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 5 *Yellow Warbler 2* American Tree Sparrow 167 Fox Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco 353 White-crowned Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 193 Song Sparrow 35 Swamp Sparrow 5 *Eastern Towhee 1* Northern Cardinal 208 Red-winged Blackbird 56 Common Grackle 5 House Finch 179 Pine Siskin 49 American Goldfinch 387 House Sparrow 474 *Jason D. Luscier, PhD* *Pronouns: he, him, his* Associate Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences Director of Environmental Sciences and Environmental Studies Certified Wildlife Biologist ® Le Moyne College 1419 Salt Springs Road Syracuse, NY 13207 https://www.lemoyne.edu/Luscier -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
