All about “COUNT WEEK”

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What does Count Week mean/How is it used? Do I record numbers observed for birds I’ve seen Count Week? Do I record the day of a Count Week bird?

• Count week is defined as from 3 days before to 3 days after your official count day. If your official count day is December 14, then your Count Week extends from Dec 11 to Dec 17 (and can therefore extend outside of the official count period of Dec 14-Jan 5).
• Count week (cw) birds serve as a place holder for that species on your checklist in a given season. They are not at all a part of your official census data for that season’s day.
• Birds seen during the 3 days before or after your count day but NOT on your official count day are recorded on your checklist as “cw”. No other information about count week birds are recorded in the CBC database. Numbers observed of count week birds are not recorded nor added to other numbers, and the date of when a count week bird was seen, is not recorded.
• Count week listings do not count toward your species total or toward your number of individuals on count day.
• It is up to the compiler as to whether time should be spent in the field looking for count week birds. It is not a requirement of the CBC to go out and observe birds during count week, but scouting time ahead of the count day, if it occurs during count week, can be an opportunity to notice these other birds.
• Numbers for any species seen on count day are the ones to be included. Even if larger numbers of a given species were found during count week than on count day, only the tally from the official census day should be entered on your checklist.

Example 1: If you reported 11 Great Blue Herons on your official count day, you cannot include Great Blue Heron as a count week bird, but you should enter “11” as the number for Great Blue Heron on your checklist. But if you did NOT see Great Blue Heron on your official count day, and did see it one day before your official count day, then you would record a “cw” in the number box of your CBC checklist for Great Blue Heron.

Example 2: If you found 11 Great Blue Herons during the count week but only 4 on count day, the number to include in your official checklist tally is 4–the number seen on count day.