100 years ago, an American named Frank M. Chapman decided that it was time for an alternative to traditional Christmas Day bird hunts. In these "Side Hunts," groups of sportsmen would divide up into teams, head out into the fields and woods with their guns, and shoot every bird or small animal that they saw. The side with the most dead animals won the event.

Chapman was an ornithologist and an officer with the Audubon Society. He was concerned that such indiscriminate slaughters were endangering populations of birds and other wildlife, so he proposed that on Christmas Day people should go out and count birds instead of shooting them.

The first bird count was held on Christmas Day, 1900, and 27 bird watchers spotted a total of 18,500 birds -- 90 species in all. Most of the counts were held in the northeastern part of the continent, but counts were also held in warmer locales such as Florida and California. The indiscriminate hunt was curbed in 1916 when Canada and the United States signed the Migratory Birds Convention Act.

100 years later, the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a massive undertaking, and has been called the oldest and largest wildlife inventory in the world. More than 45,000 volunteer birdwatchers now take part in the event, and counts are held in every state, province and territory in North America, parts of Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies and on some Pacific Islands.

The one-day counts take place in an area that is 24 kilometres in diameter, and volunteers count all of the birds they see in their area during a single day. Feeder-watchers who live within the boundaries of count areas stay at home and monitor the numbers and species of birds that appear at their feeders. In the 1998 count, more than 1,700 circular count areas were surveyed.

The Christmas Bird Count plays an important role as an early winter survey of birds, and complements the North American Breeding Bird Survey which takes place in the summer. The count yields valuable insights into the shifting distribution patterns and population trends of species. This information can indicate concerns with fragmentation of habitat or signal an immediate environmental threat to a particular species.

For example, CBC data marked the decline in several birds, including Peregrine Falcons, Trumpeter Swans and Bald Eagles. It has also been used to track the spread of the House Finch across eastern North America after this species was introduced to the New York City area in the mid-1940s. Winter eruptions or mass congregations of species such as Crossbills and Common Redpolls can also be tracked through the count.

The National Audubon Society sponsors the event, gathers all of the data and publishes the results. Canada has played an important role in the Christmas Bird Count from the start. Two Ontarians helped with the original count in 1900, and Ontario regularly ranks near the top of the list for the number of areas surveyed.

The statistics show that many Canadians like their Christmas counts. After every count a list is published of the individual counts with the most participants. Two years ago Edmonton had more participants for a single count -- 523 in all -- than any other area. Canadian counts also took four out of the next six spots for the most participants per count.

Yukon counts might have fewer participants, but they are all hardy birders, eager to spot the 25 or so species that usually turn up on the count. Yukoners have been helping with the Christmas Bird Count since 1972. For a number of years two counts were held in the Whitehorse area, one north of the city and one south of it. In 1985 the switch was made to one Whitehorse count, centered at the intersection of the Alaska Highway and Robert Service Way.

Two counts have been conducted on an irregular basis in the Kluane area since 1974 -- one in Haines Junction and one at Kluane Lake. The Marsh Lake count, which has been held since 1980, uses M'Clintock Bay as its central point. This year counts are also being held in Watson Lake and Mayo.

Counts can be conducted any time within a two and a half week period around Christmas, regardless of the weather. More volunteers are always welcome, and people do not have to be expert at bird identification to participate. Novices are paired up with more expert bird watchers, who can also pass on the finer points of dealing with frosted up binoculars if the weather is cold.

More information on the Christmas Bird Count can be found at www.birdsource/cornell.edu/cbc/.