16 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Means To Improve ACCURACY AND 
SCIENTIFIC VALUE Or CHRISTMAS Birp 
CouNTS 
by WILLIAM ROBERTSON 
(Originally prepared in 1951 for the Springfield Audubon Society — 
Editor) 
The chief items concerned here are: 
SPECIES IDENTIFICATION 
STANDARDIZATION OF COVERAGE AND COUNT PLANNING 
SPECIES IDENTIFICATION 
1, 
As a first step, past count records should be made available before- 
hand to all participants. This could be either the complete record, 
or, perhaps better, an abbreviated list showing the species that have 
been found, the number of counts on which they have been 
recorded, and a maximum figure of abundance. Everyone who goes 
into the field should have such a list. Then they can quickly 
determine just how rare a ‘‘rarity”’ it is that confronts them, and take 
appropriate care in their identification. The list would also serve, of 
course, to alert observers to unusual abundances of species, which 
might deserve comment. 
In reporting unusual items, observers should be expected (and 
should expect) to recount in detail. The observed characters which 
led them to make the identification they did, the conditions of the 
observation, and the exact locality. We have, with the 1951 count, a 
17-year record of winter bird populations in the Springfield area 
(therefore, in 1976, a 42-year record — Ed.). Even with 114 species 
recorded (through 1951), more will turn up. However, it stands to 
reason that they will be few and far between. Therefore, particular 
care should be exercised in case of reports which add species to the 
