114th CBC Colorado Regional Summary

By Brandon K. Percival

One new CBC was started in Colorado this year; it was the Dotsero CBC in western Colorado, along I-70, in western Eagle County, between Glenwood Springs and Eagle.

Colorado had a lot of weather issues before the Christmas Bird Count season this year.  This started with last summer’s big fire in the Black Forest, and the big flooding in September from Rocky Mountain National Park, east along the entire South Platte River.  These areas all seemed to have fewer birds than usual this year.  As usual, we seem to get an arctic cold front in early December, which we did again this year.  This moved many water birds south, since many lakes and ponds in northern Colorado were mostly frozen.  This early cold weather brought many water birds to Pueblo Reservoir, which tied the state CBC record for species, with 129, plus there were four others seen during count week.  This was amazing total, since the CBC species total state wide was lower than normal, with only 189 species found during count day, plus three others during count week.  The only CBCs reaching the 100 mark this year, besides for Pueblo Reservoir, were Penrose (114), Boulder (107), and Loveland (104).  Three others, Pueblo, John Martin Reservoir, and Denver reached the 90s.  On the lower end, only 14 species were found and a total of 161 birds were found at North Park.  The Denver (Urban) CBC counted the most birds, with 46,805, though Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Pueblo, and Crook all counted over 45,000 birds as well.  All these counts had large numbers of geese.  A total of 206,849 Canada Geese were counted in Colorado, and were the most abundant species on Colorado CBCs.  Only one species was found on all 49 Colorado CBCs this year, and that was Black-billed Magpie.

As usual there were some rarities found.  The highlights were a Brant at Denver; an adult Trumpeter Swan at Pueblo Reservoir and then 12 days later at Pueblo may have been the same bird; Tundra Swans at Boulder and Pueblo; three Blue-winged Teal at Longmont; two Long-tailed Ducks at Denver and at Pueblo Reservoir; single Red-throated and Pacific Loons at Pueblo Reservoir; a Red-necked Grebe at Pueblo Reservoir and at Denver (during count week); a Great Egret at Grand Junction; single Greater Yellowlegs at Weldona-Fort Morgan and Sterling; an adult Mew Gull at Loveland; adult Iceland Gulls at Pueblo and Loveland; an immature Glaucous-winged Gull at Pueblo Reservoir; single Great Black-backed Gulls at Pueblo Reservoir and Pueblo; a male Red-naped Sapsucker (Penrose); single Black Phoebe at Penrose and Pueblo Reservoir (during count week); a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at Grand Junction; a Northern Parula (during count week) at Pueblo Reservoir; an Ovenbird (during count week) at Longmont; two Common Yellowthroats at Pueblo Reservoir; a Green-tailed Towhee at Douglas County; two Vesper Sparrows at Grand Mesa; single Golden-crowned Sparrows at Denver and Boulder – both birds present through the count period; and a Yellow-headed Blackbird at Crook.

The irregular northern species made a small showing on CBCs this year, with 517 Bohemian Waxwings and eight Common Redpolls.  Of the regular northern species, there were 493 Rough-legged Hawks; 103 Northern Shrikes; and 3506 American Tree Sparrows, these totals were all higher than last year.

There were some interesting high counts of certain species, 123 Greater White-fronted Geese at Weldona-Fort Morgan; 2356 Ross’s Geese at Crook; 34 Greater Scaup at Denver; 982 Eared Grebes at Pueblo Reservoir; 6745 Eurasian Collared-Doves at Pueblo; 88 White-winged Doves at Pueblo Reservoir; 52 Western Screech-Owls at Grand Junction; 23 Eastern Screech-Owls at Bonny Reservoir; 31 American Dippers at Dotsero; 2026 American Robins at Pueblo; and 43 Common Grackles at Denver (Urban).

Totals statewide for some of the more unusual species:  163 Greater White-fronted Geese; 68 Greater Scaup; 20 Barrow’s Goldeneye; seven Common Loons; 25 Horned Grebe; 114 Western Grebes; four Clark’s Grebes; 26 Double-crested Cormorants; three American White Pelicans; 12 Black-crowned Night-Herons; five Peregrine Falcons; four Sora; 144 Sandhill Cranes; 29 Bonaparte’s Gulls; ten Thayer’s Gulls; 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls; three Glaucous Gulls; 146 White-winged Doves; seven Greater Roadrunners; four Barn Owls; two Williamson’s Sapsuckers; four Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers; two Ladder-backed Woodpeckers; 11 Say’s Phoebes; ten Winter Wrens; 170 Eastern Bluebirds; two Hermit Thrushes; seven Gray Catbirds; five Northern Mockingbirds; four Brown Thrashers; 14 Lincoln’s Sparrows; 16 Swamp Sparrows; 10 White-throated Sparrows; 27 Harris’s Sparrows; 13 Northern Cardinals; six Rusty Blackbirds; 58 Common Grackles; and 78 Lesser Goldfinches.

Mountain and Western bluebirds were found in low numbers, with only 451 Mountains and 164 Westerns statewide.  The lack of juniper berries was the likely cause of the low numbers. 

Rosy-Finch numbers were low as well, 1367 state-wide.  The Loveland CBC had the most with a tally of 1000.

I want to thanks the compilers and observers for sending in photos and written documentation of their interesting birds found on Colorado CBCs this year; it helps me a lot in reviewing the counts.  I also want to thank Coen Dexter, Doug Faulkner, Tony Leukering, Bill Maynard, Van Truan and Christopher L. Wood for helping review some of the photos and written documentation that were submitted.