The Annual Challenge Bird Count (ACBC) commenced more than three decades ago as a fun end-of-year activity for amateur birdwatchers and birding/naturalist groups across Australia. The ‘challenge’ is to get groups of people to see how many birds they can collectively detect and count within their local area (25km radius) within a calendar day – and always occurring around the first weekend in December. The nation-wide event was originally coordinated by the Bird Observers Club of Australia, and since the merger with RAOU in 2012 it has since been taken over by volunteer representatives of BirdLife Australia.
For the Castlemaine area, the sightings must be made within a 25km radius of the central township, and for a bird to be a legitimate record, it must be either seen by 2 or more people, or heard by 3 or more people.
The Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club has been part of this event from its earliest days – with our team first coordinated by Ern Perkins, then Chris Morris and now by Chris Timewell. During the COVID years of 2020 and 2021, the whole event was cancelled. We usually have a small contingent of birdwatchers forming several teams who contribute each year while having a fun day birding around our area and collecting a snapshot of bird presence and abundance which may be compared to previous years’ data.
The simple rules are:
1 Our club organiser will help oversee the locations being checked, particularly to avoid double-ups, but also to minimise geographic gaps. It’s usually a good approach to visit a mix of habitats within the day – woodlands, wetlands, gardens, paddocks, etc. to get a high variety of bird species.
2 The searches need to be conducted within a single calendar day, or part thereof. This is preferable on the earliest weekend day in December – but may be conducted on a day occurring up to a week on either side.
3 The bird searches are done in small groups – no less than 2 people, and ideally 3 or more. You can either arrange your own group, or contact our club organiser who can help you join with others to form a group. For less experienced birdwatchers, there will be opportunities to join a group with more experienced birders.
Annual Results for Castlemaine Region
| Year | No. of individual birds | No. of species | No of Teams | Link to detailed report. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1572 | 110 | 4 | 2024 Report |
| 2023 | 1575 | 108 | 3 | 2023 Report |
| 2022 | 287 | 61 | 1 | 2022 Report |
| 2020, 2021 | Cancelled due to COVID | |||
| 2019 | 2377 | 113 | 2019 Report | |
| 2018 | 1840 | 107 | ||
| 2017 | 1723 | 107 | ||
| 2016 | 1212 | 84 |
Below is a list of the species and number of individual birds recorded during the Castlemaine Challenge Bird Counts.
| Common Name | 2023 Number detected | 2024 Number detected |
|---|---|---|
| Australasian Darter | 1 | 2 |
| Australasian Grebe | 11 | 5 |
| Australasian Pipit | 2 | 6 |
| Australian Magpie | 63 | 62 |
| Australian Pelican | 2 | |
| Australian Raven | 1 | 9 |
| Australian Reed-Warbler | 4 | 7 |
| Australian Shelduck | 3 | |
| Australian White Ibis | 3 | 2 |
| Australian Wood Duck | 107 | 107 |
| Black Kite | 1 | 3 |
| Black Swan | 5 | |
| Black-chinned Honeyeater | 1 | |
| Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike | 7 | 16 |
| Black-fronted Dotterel | 4 | 3 |
| Black-shouldered Kite | 2 | 1 |
| Black-tailed Native-hen | 1 | 1 |
| Brown Falcon | 2 | 4 |
| Brown Goshawk | 1 | |
| Brown Songlark | 2 | |
| Brown Thornbill | 8 | 14 |
| Brown Treecreeper | 9 | 9 |
| Brown-headed Honeyeater | 3 | 7 |
| Buff-rumped Thornbill | 5 | |
| Chestnut Teal | 5 | 11 |
| Collared Sparrowhawk | 1 | |
| Common Blackbird | 7 | 18 |
| Common Bronzewing | 6 | 10 |
| Common Myna | 11 | 9 |
| Common Starling | 51 | 6 |
| Crested Pigeon | 7 | 7 |
| Crested Shrike-tit | 1 | 1 |
| Crimson Rosella | 20 | 23 |
| Domestic Duck | 3 | |
| Dusky Moorhen | 19 | 15 |
| Dusky Woodswallow | 17 | 13 |
| Eastern Rosella | 24 | 21 |
| Eastern Spinebill | 2 | 6 |
| Eastern Yellow Robin | 1 | 4 |
| Eurasian Coot | 37 | 36 |
| European Goldfinch | 1 | 3 |
| Fairy Martin | 13 | 11 |
| Fan-tailed Cuckoo | 1 | |
| Fuscous Honeyeater | 27 | 40 |
| Galah | 72 | 30 |
| Golden Whistler | 1 | |
| Great Cormorant | 19 | |
| Great Egret | 1 | |
| Grey Butcherbird | 1 | |
| Grey Currawong | 2 | 5 |
| Grey Fantail | 3 | 24 |
| Grey Shrike-thrush | 19 | 15 |
| Grey Teal | 12 | 12 |
| Hardhead | 4 | 6 |
| Hoary-headed Grebe | 30 | 35 |
| Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo | 2 | |
| House Sparrow | 7 | 64 |
| Intermediate Egret | 2 | |
| Jacky Winter | 2 | 2 |
| Laughing Kookaburra | 5 | 6 |
| Leaden Flycatcher | 2 | |
| Little Black Cormorant | 6 | 5 |
| Little Corella | 8 | 16 |
| Little Eagle | 1 | |
| Little Lorikeet | 2 | |
| Little Pied Cormorant | 6 | |
| Little Raven | 51 | 69 |
| Long-billed Corella | 178 | 92 |
| Magpie-lark | 28 | 14 |
| Masked Lapwing | 22 | 4 |
| Mistletoebird | 2 | 1 |
| Musk Duck | 1 | |
| Musk Lorikeet | 44 | 34 |
| New Holland Honeyeater | 16 | 19 |
| Noisy Miner | 12 | 23 |
| Olive-backed Oriole | 3 | 7 |
| Pacific Black Duck | 20 | 18 |
| Peaceful Dove | 4 | 1 |
| Pied Cormorant | 9 | |
| Pied Currawong | 1 | 1 |
| Powerful Owl | 2 | |
| Purple Swamphen | 2 | |
| Rainbow Bee-eater | 4 | 10 |
| Rainbow Lorikeet | 1 | 9 |
| Red Wattlebird | 31 | 34 |
| Red-browed Finch | 17 | 8 |
| Red-rumped Parrot | 45 | 8 |
| Rufous Songlark | 2 | 2 |
| Rufous Whistler | 5 | 19 |
| Sacred Kingfisher | 1 | 7 |
| Scarlet Robin | 1 | |
| Sharp-tailed Sandpiper | 1 | |
| Shining Bronze-cuckoo | 3 | |
| Silvereye | 4 | 23 |
| Southern Boobook | 1 | |
| Southern Whiteface | 2 | |
| Spotted Dove | 1 | |
| Spotted Pardalote | 4 | 16 |
| Square-tailed Kite | 1 | 1 |
| Straw-necked Ibis | 6 | 8 |
| Striated Pardalote | 7 | 18 |
| Striated Thornbill | 3 | 2 |
| Sulphur-crested Cockatoo | 21 | 39 |
| Superb Fairy-wren | 38 | 73 |
| Tawny Frogmouth | 4 | |
| Tree Martin | 5 | 4 |
| Varied Sittella | 2 | |
| Wedge-tailed Eagle | 2 | |
| Weebill | 6 | 31 |
| Welcome Swallow | 20 | 33 |
| Whistling Kite | 4 | 3 |
| White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike | 2 | |
| White-browed Babbler | 17 | 5 |
| White-browed Scrubwren | 2 | 10 |
| White-browed Woodswallow | 43 | |
| White-eared Honeyeater | 1 | |
| White-faced Heron | 9 | 12 |
| White-fronted Chat | 4 | |
| White-naped Honeyeater | 26 | 3 |
| White-necked Heron | 4 | |
| White-plumed Honeyeater | 18 | 29 |
| White-throated Treecreeper | 7 | 11 |
| White-winged Chough | 91 | 65 |
| White-winged Triller | 2 | 1 |
| Willie Wagtail | 27 | 27 |
| Yellow Thornbill | 5 | |
| Yellow-faced Honeyeater | 2 | 14 |
| Yellow-rumped Thornbill | 14 | 4 |
| Yellow-tufted Honeyeater | 2 | |