New York City and the rest of New York may be home to skyscrapers and lots of other modern structures but there still remains to be nature within.
The natural environment that exists there is, in fact, home to beautiful bird species which are being protected by a conservation group called the New York Audubon Society.
This group began a bird count project on Christmas day in 1900 led by scientist and writer Frank Chapman.
His proposal was to start a new holiday tradition of conducting a Christmas Bird Census instead of hunting the birds.
Since then, the activity has been conducted every year normally in five areas of New York - Bronx/Southern Westchester, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan/Lower Hudson and Queen.
The idea for the bird count was to create an alternative activity to the traditional side hunt wherein teams compete to shoot the most number of birds and mammals in various areas of New York including New York City's Central Park.
Instead of contributing to the depletion of the bird population, Chapman and his group started identifying, counting and recording all the birds that they saw.
For more than 100 years now, the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) endeavor being pursued by volunteers has proven to be beneficial.
It has helped people to better understand bird behavior, their movements and efforts done to preserve them.
During the CBC period that runs for about three weeks, students, families, bird enthusiasts, feeder-watchers, field observers and scientists bring their binoculars, bird guides and checklists to search for different kinds of birds.
Together they brave the snow, wind, rain and chilly weather to contribute to the bird conservation project.
The data gathered is then used by the New York Audubon Society and other organizations to determine the health of bird populations and provide guidance to conservation efforts.
By collecting new information via the bird count activity, researchers, conservation biologists and other interested people are able to look into the health and status of bird populations cross North America for the long term.
It then allows them to come up with actions and programs that will help protect the birds and their habitat and identify environmental factors that may affect their population.
Based on the information gathered through the CBC project, it has been found by scientists that the population of common bird species has declined.
For example, the Common Gackle was discovered to be fewer by 60 percent over the past 40 years and 20 percent over the past 36 years.
On a positive note, its population is increasing in New York City by 125 percent.
The 110th Christmas Bird Count that covered the years 2009-2010 saw a record number of participants are more than 60,700 as well as a record number of bird counts at 2,160.
Similar activities continue to be conducted as well in Canada and in Colombia in the Latin America.
The New York Audubon Society continues to accept volunteers who love birds and would like to do their share in the conservation project.
It also accepts donations from generous individuals, groups and organizations to support the Society's projects.
The natural environment that exists there is, in fact, home to beautiful bird species which are being protected by a conservation group called the New York Audubon Society.
This group began a bird count project on Christmas day in 1900 led by scientist and writer Frank Chapman.
His proposal was to start a new holiday tradition of conducting a Christmas Bird Census instead of hunting the birds.
Since then, the activity has been conducted every year normally in five areas of New York - Bronx/Southern Westchester, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan/Lower Hudson and Queen.
The idea for the bird count was to create an alternative activity to the traditional side hunt wherein teams compete to shoot the most number of birds and mammals in various areas of New York including New York City's Central Park.
Instead of contributing to the depletion of the bird population, Chapman and his group started identifying, counting and recording all the birds that they saw.
For more than 100 years now, the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) endeavor being pursued by volunteers has proven to be beneficial.
It has helped people to better understand bird behavior, their movements and efforts done to preserve them.
During the CBC period that runs for about three weeks, students, families, bird enthusiasts, feeder-watchers, field observers and scientists bring their binoculars, bird guides and checklists to search for different kinds of birds.
Together they brave the snow, wind, rain and chilly weather to contribute to the bird conservation project.
The data gathered is then used by the New York Audubon Society and other organizations to determine the health of bird populations and provide guidance to conservation efforts.
By collecting new information via the bird count activity, researchers, conservation biologists and other interested people are able to look into the health and status of bird populations cross North America for the long term.
It then allows them to come up with actions and programs that will help protect the birds and their habitat and identify environmental factors that may affect their population.
Based on the information gathered through the CBC project, it has been found by scientists that the population of common bird species has declined.
For example, the Common Gackle was discovered to be fewer by 60 percent over the past 40 years and 20 percent over the past 36 years.
On a positive note, its population is increasing in New York City by 125 percent.
The 110th Christmas Bird Count that covered the years 2009-2010 saw a record number of participants are more than 60,700 as well as a record number of bird counts at 2,160.
Similar activities continue to be conducted as well in Canada and in Colombia in the Latin America.
The New York Audubon Society continues to accept volunteers who love birds and would like to do their share in the conservation project.
It also accepts donations from generous individuals, groups and organizations to support the Society's projects.