INDIAN PEAKS BIRD COUNTS

The Indian Peaks Bird Counts started in 1982 in order to inventory the avifauna of western Boulder and northwestern Gilpin counties in Colorado. These counts provide information about species presence and relative abundance as well as documenting trends and composition changes occurring in the mountain landscape.

History

The Indian Peaks Bird Counts are a long-term project commonly accepted to be an initiative of the Boulder County Nature Association with help from Boulder County Audubon Society. Conceived by Dave Alles, Mike Figgs, and Dave Hallock, the count began as an Audubon Christmas Bird Count on January 1, 1982 and then evolved into a four season bird count the following summer. The format evolved in the fall of 1991 when instead of a specific count day, a count period was used to give participants more flexibility and diminish the influence of bad weather that can plague a single count day. The spring count was discontinued in 2012. The winter, breeding and fall counts have now completed 40 years. The winter and fall counts concluded in 2021. The breeding count will continue.

Location and Geography

The area covered by the count follows the format of Christmas Bird Counts – a 7.5 mile radius circle that is centered near Rainbow Lakes (Location Map). The count circle runs east to just below Peewink Mountain off of Sugarloaf Road, west just over the Continental Divide into Grand County, south to Rollinsville, and north to Beaver Reservoir. Elevations range from 7,500 feet in Boulder Canyon to over 13,400 feet along the Continental Divide. Lifezones include upper montane, subalpine, and alpine. The count circle is roughly half upper montane and half subalpine/alpine (Circle Detail Map). The count circle is divided into 25 count areas, 9 of which are all or mostly in upper montane habitats while 16 are mostly subalpine/alpine habitats.

Participants

The count originated using recruits from local bird-focused organizations, primarily from BCNA and Boulder County Audubon Society, but also Foothills Audubon Club, Colorado Field Ornithologists, and Denver Field Ornithologists. Other participants were recruited from local mountain communities, including Eldora, Nederland, and the Sugarloaf area. Nearly 300 people have taken part in the count. But generally, a core group of 20 to 35 individuals have “adopted” count areas and take part in each count; some since its inception in 1982. The long-term participants get very familiar with their areas, which helps with the continuity of bird sightings from count-to-count and year-to-year. Generally, between 12 and 24 count areas are covered each count, with greatest participation in the summer and fall counts.

Protocol

sThose taking part in the count record all birds seen or heard during the time period they are out in the field. The amount of time participants count varies from a morning to a half or full day. For the first 10 years, the count was held on one day. Beginning with the Fall of 1991, the count was conducted during a count period; participants go out one or more days within their count area (if they go out more than one day, they must go to a different portion of their area on each trip). This was done to lessen the influence of bad weather, as well as allowing some of the participants to cover more than one count area. The count periods have been:

• Winter: December 15 – President’s Day in February. Beginning in 2012, the count became increasingly focused on the 4-day President’s Day Weekend so the count data could be a part of the Great Backyard Bird Count. (the winter count occurred from 1982-2021)

• Spring: First two weeks of May (spring count occurred from 1982 to 2011).

• Summer (Breeding): June 1 to July 15.

• Fall: Second and third weeks of September (the fall count occurred from 1982-2021)

The counts are then submitted to a compiler, who tallies the count and prepares a report. Dave Hallock has been the primary compiler since the count began. Bill Kaempfer helped with compilation of the Spring and Fall counts for many years. Some of the most recent reports are included here:

Long-term Observations

There are several trends and cycles that we are seeing over the 38-year period of the count. First, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of corvids (jays, crows, magpies and the like). Winter count numbers appear driven by the relative presence or absence of tree-cone seed eaters (particularly Clark’s nutcrackers, red-breasted nuthatches, and red crossbills). But most winter counts are dominated by mountain chickadees, which generally comprise 25% of all birds seen.

We are particularly interested in changes to the breeding bird community. Besides corvids, several neo-tropical migrants have been increasing in number, including cliff swallow, yellow warbler, MacGillivray’s warbler, and black-headed grosbeak. American three-toed and hairy woodpeckers are resident species that have exhibited a numeric increase, likely in response to several pine beetle infestations in the coniferous forests. A number of species that were not found during the early decades of the count are now becoming regular finds, though generally at low numbers, including double-crested cormorant, wild turkey, bald eagle, black-chinned hummingbird, Eurasian collared-dove, and orange-crowned warbler. Species that appear to be declining on the count include green-winged teal, killdeer, pine siskin, evening grosbeak, Brewer’s blackbird, and brown-headed cowbird.

Spreadsheets of breeding bird data

Some notes about the Breeding Summary spreadsheet:

- There are three pages. The page called “All” looks at all of the count areas. The page called “Montane” looks only at those count areas generally classified as the montane lifezone, while the page called “Subalpine” looks at the subalpine/alpine areas. Refer to the Circle Detail Map for the geographic division between these two areas.
- The data presented are in both a raw number (Total Number) and a Per Count Hour basis.
- The species order follows the AOU checklist order from 1982 when the count began. We have kept that order for our entire database. Species that were not on the original 1982 species list are numerically included as “others” and listed below the totals of each count in the order in which they first observed on the count. This provides a visual timeline as to when new species were observed.

The Indian Peaks Bird Counts are a rather robust data point. We invite researchers to use the information generated by the Indian Peaks Bird Counts in their own work. This was recently done for a paper that looked at “100-Year Breeding Bird Population Change in the Coniferous Forests of the Colorado Front Range” by Chase, Cruz, Swanson, and Vinton (in preparation). Additional information about the Indian Peaks Bird Counts may be obtained by contacting Dave Hallock (eldoradh@rmi.net).

Banner Photo © CC VanWie