Chapel Hill Bird Club

Brown-headed Nuthatch by Doug Pratt
	Chapel Hill Bird Club
	The Chapel Hill Bird Club is for everyone who loves wild birds. Whether you watch birds in your yard or travel to ends of the earth for rarities, our club offers something for you: access to like-minded people including experts who can answer your questions, interesting programs, bimonthly field trips, Christmas and spring bird counts, and a Facebook group. We are a friendly group and welcome all. Our members mostly come from the Research Triangle area of North Carolina: Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Pittsboro, and surrounding towns.

At our November 2003 meeting we voted unanimously to pay for the restoration of an original Audubon print at the North Carolina Museum of Art. By a vote of 14 to 9, Brown-headed Nuthatch won over Red-headed Woodpecker.
We also voted unanimously to make a donation to support Susan Campbell's hummingbird banding work.

Membership and Donations

Annual dues are $25 per individual or family, or $10 if you're a student. Dues go by calendar year, Jan 1 to Dec 31, so renewal season is coming up for continuing members. If you are a new member, you can join now and we'll credit your membership as being for 2025. To join the club (or renew your membership), visit the membership page

Field Trips

We have bimonthly field trips from September through April, except during bird count seasons. Check our online schedule for dates and times.

Meetings

We have monthly meetings from September through May (except December), generally on the fourth Monday of the month at 7:30pm. We are exploring holding hybrid meetings this season—in-person meetings with a Zoom option. As the night of the meeting approaches, please look for an announcement with the Zoom meeting link on the Chapel Hill Bird Club email list and Facebook page, Carolinabirds, New Hope Audubon Meetup, and the New Hope Audubon website calendar.

In-person meetings are at 7:30 pm on the fourth Monday of the month at Binkley Baptist Church, in the Lounge. Binkley is at 1712 Willow Drive in Chapel Hill, at the intersection with 15-501 near University Mall (map with meeting room pinpointed). Visitors welcome! Come at 7:15 for light refreshments. We don't have a meeting in June, July, August, or December.

2024–2025 Speakers

November 25, 2024

Ross McKinney—New Zealand: Preserving the Precious

How to access this meeting via zoom

Ross and Holly McKinney took a birding-heavy trip through New Zealand in February, 2024. The trip included examples of New Zealand's endemic species, many of which have barely survived the arrivals of the Maori and their accompanying rats and other mammals in 1300-1320. The arrival of Europeans in the 19th century only made the situation worse for New Zealand birds, most of which had evolved to protect themselves from other birds and reptiles, not animals with a sense of smell. In the 1970s, the people of New Zealand began to realize they had an opportunity to preserve and protect their unique birdlife. They developed mammal free islands like Tiri Tiri Matangi and Capiti, and they designed elaborate walling systems able to keep out predators in mainland preserves.

Ross McKinney is a retired pediatric infectious diseases physician who practiced at Duke for 37 years. He is an avid photographer, runs a vintage pen web site, and is currently Vice President of the New Hope Bird Alliance.
January 27 2025

David Anderson and Joe Donahue—Finding Birds in Panama

Joe Donahue, David Anderson and Vern Bothwell spent 8 days in March, 2024 at the Canopy Lodge in Panama. Daily field trips and observations at the Lodge tallied over 200 species. Feeding platforms at the Lodge made for some exciting sightings. And expert guides found a wonderful variety of birds in the surrounding regions.

David Anderson spent almost 40 years in the animal and conservation profession. Beginning as supervisor and interim director of the Duke Lemur Center, then general curator and associate director of the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, executive director of the San Francisco Zoo, director of Florida Audubon, strategic program director of the Bay Institute in San Francisco, and finally retiring to North Carolina, where he is chair of the Field Trips committee for New Hope Bird Alliance, and a drummer in a rock and roll band!

Joe Donahue is an avid birder. After getting a biology degree at Oklahoma State, he spent 20 years in the Army flying helicopters and airplanes "managing not to kill myself or anyone else." He then spent 2 years teaching high school in Tulsa, where he again "did not kill anyone but had serious thoughts on the subject." He returned to the aviation logisitics field for the rest of his working days.
February 24, 2025

Lynn Moseley. Leks, Sex, and the Buff-breasted Sandpiper

About 90% of bird species are socially monogamous, with a single male and female forming a pair bond and raising young. But about 100 species exhibit an usual type of breeding behavior in which males in a small group defend individual territories in an area known as a lek. These territories are used exclusively for courtship displays and mating, and the males play no role in incubation or raising the young. This program will give examples of lekking species and explore why this behavior has evolved.

Lynn retired several years ago from Guilford College, where she was the Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology, and Chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Math. Her Bachelor's degree in Biology is from the College of William and Mary (she took Ornithology from Dr. Byrd). She received her Ph.D in Zoology from UNC-Chapel Hill. At Guilford College Lynn taught courses in Ornithology, Animal Behavior, Vertebrate Zoology, and Outer Banks Ecology. Her research focused on Least Terns on the barrier islands of North Carolina, and later on Bald Eagles that nested in the Piedmont. Dr. Moseley has led many trips with students, alumni, and friends of Guilford College to observe wildlife in the American Southwest, East Africa, the Galapagos Islands, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Costa Rica.
March 24, 2025

Bo Howes and Jin Bai—Habitat Management and Bird Population at Brumley North

Brumley Forest Nature Preserve is a local popular birding hotspot in the Triangle, managed by the Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC). TLC has been working on land management activities aimed at improving the quality of habitat at Brumley North, including prescribed burns, removing invasive plants, planting native seeds and plugs, and doing bird-centered outreach events. Since the Fall of 2022, TLC and New Hope Bird Alliance have conducted bird surveys to evaluate the effects of these habitat management activities on the bird population at Brumley N. Bo Howes and Jin Bai will co-present a talk presenting information on the management activities at Brumley N with Jin presenting bird population level and trends at Brumley N using data collected and compiled from the bird survey. In addition, Jin will also talk about the warbler index, which gives some unique insights into the birding hotspots with the highest number of warbler species seen during each migration season in the Triangle.

Bo Howes started as Conservation Project Manager for TLC in October 2008 and currently holds the position of Director of Land Protection and Stewardship West. With deep roots in the local community, Bo has successfully identified, initiated, and closed scores of land projects. He is a past president of the New Hope Audubon Society and a former member of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation. He remains on the Botanical Garden Foundation Conservation Committee and is president of the Chapel Hill Bird Club.
Jin Bai received his Ph.D. in 2024 in the Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology program at NCSU and studies the drivers of urban bird diversity. He has extensive experience designing, coordinating, and assisting citizen science projects in the Triangle area, including organizing the Triangle Bird Count and bird-window collision monitoring. Jin is the Community Science Committee Chair and a board member of New Hope Bird Alliance.
April 28, 2025

Robert Driver—Evolution and Functional Characterization of Olfactory Receptors in Birds

Vertebrates detect odor molecules with olfactory receptors (ORs), a gene family expressed in the olfactory epithelium. Among species, OR diversity is associated with reliance on smell, with some mammals exceeding 2,000 OR genes. Birds are the most speciose class of terrestrial vertebrates, inhabiting nearly all land environments and with diverse social structures and foraging strategies, yet were long thought to make limited use of olfactory signals. Recent behavioral work in birds has shown important roles for olfaction in foraging and species recognition, among other behaviors. Contributing to this surge of interest in avian olfaction, our recent work has shown that birds have hundreds more OR genes in their genomes than previously realized.

Dr. Driver received his B.S. in Biology from Muhlenberg College in 2009 and his M.S. degree in Biology in 2017 from Villanova University. In 2022, Robert received his PhD in Biology from East Carolina University. Robert is currently an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University, in the lab of Dr. Hiroaki Matsunami, where he researches bird olfactory receptors and bird sense of smell.
May 19, 2025

Bradley Scholten—Assessing the spread of antibiotic resistant Salmonella and E. coli in songbirds and at birdfeeders

Bradley will talk about his research which focuses on understanding the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria in songbirds, specifically looking at Salmonella and E. coli – two pathogens that can cause epidemics in both humans and birds. Currently, he is looking at potential sources for where songbirds acquire these bacteria. Ultimately, he hopes his research will contribute to solutions for limiting the spread of antibiotic resistance and zoonotic diseases.

Bradley is a fifth year PhD student in the Biology program at North Carolina State University, advised by Drs. Roland Kays and Martha Burford Reiskind. He is a 2020 Genetics and Genomics Scholar and a 2024 Global One Health Fellow. Before starting his PhD, Bradley received his BS in Biology at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he studied schistosome parasites in common mergansers at inland lakes in Northern Michigan, and also researched how drone flying affects behaviors and stress physiology in tree swallows.

Past Meeting Archive

Click here for our archive of past Zoom meetings.

Newsletter

Facebook Group

If you'd like to interact with other local bird folks online, check out the Chapel Hill Bird Club's Facebook group.

Bird Counts

We conduct Christmas, spring, and fall bird counts.

Schedule and contacts - the local counts are always looking for fresh recruits!
Chapel Hill count circle map | count procedures
Summaries:
Chapel Hill Christmas Bird Counts for 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021
Chapel Hill Spring Bird Count 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024
Chatham County Fall Bird Count 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013
Full results in PDF format:
Christmas Bird Count: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023
Spring Bird Count: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024
Chatham County Fall Bird Count: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016
Totals for all years in Excel format (.xlsx):
Chapel Hill Christmas Bird Count (1923-present)
Chapel Hill Spring Bird Count (1952-present)

Checklist

The CHBC Checklist lists all the birds ever recorded in Chatham, Durham, and Orange Counties, NC, from 1975-11/2011, with frequency designations for every week of the year. The 2008, 2005, 2002, and 1999 CHBC Checklists are still available for comparison. There's also a graphical version in zipped Microsoft Word format.

Mini-BBS

We co-sponsor the Mini-Breeding Bird Survey in Orange, Chatham, and Durham counties. This project was started in 1999 by Haven Wiley and is now led by Allen Hurlbert, both ornithologists at the University of North Carolina. Visit the Mini-BBS site for full details.

Membership

Annual dues are $25 per individual or family, or $10 if you're a student. To join the club (or renew your membership), visit the membership page

Questions? Email us!

History

A History of the Chapel Hill Bird Club by Maury Graves - article published in the Fall 1991 CHBC Bulletin.

Club Stuff

Officers, Constitution, and By-Laws of the Chapel Hill Bird Club.

Other Groups

You may wish to join the Carolina Bird Club, which covers both Carolinas, as well as New Hope Bird Alliance or Wake Audubon, which also have bird-related programs and activities.

Morgan Creek mudflats field trip, 8/3/02

Field trip exploring the Morgan Creek mudflats at Jordan Lake, 8/3/2002.

Carolina Nature | Carolinabirds info | Triangle Birder's Guide

Last update: / created 9/2/1998 cwcook@duke.edu