Seasonal Birding Information

Overview
In Colorado, CFO assumes the daunting task of reporting bird sightings on a regular basis. Each issue of Colorado Birds contains a "News from the Field" section that summarizes bird observations in Colorado.

Reports cover Spring (March 1 - May 31), Summer (June 1 - July 31), Fall (August 1 - November 30), and Winter (December 1 - February 29).

Observations can be submitted using the Seasonal Report Form and sent as an attachment to News From the Field, which reaches all compilers. Please submit sightings no later than 10 days after the end of the season.

The seasonal report form is an Excel spreadsheet. When the link is clicked it will automatically open into Excel if that program is installed on your computer. You can save this spreadsheet to your computer once it is opened.

If you cannot use an Excel spreadsheet, please send the information listed below in some other format (e-mail message, Word document, etc.)

General Information: The reporting form includes all species found in Colorado. Species we are most interested in are in bold with a yellow background.

High number: The total number of individuals recorded at this location (if the species was present in varying numbers, this number should be the high count). Please note in the comments field the date of the high count. Every sighting should have a high number.

Low number: If a species remained over several days in varying numbers, this is the lowest (nonzero) number found. This is only used when birds were present in varying numbers.

Plumage: male or female, age if known. Optional.

First Date: The first date this species was seen at this location.

Last Date: The last date this species was seen at this location. Blank if seen only one day.

Location: The place where you recorded the bird.

County: The county where the bird was recorded.

Observers: Observers who saw the bird, with the finder listed first.

Comments: Any comments that you have; e.g. Sight Record form submitted, or "the first time Jerry Birder has ever seen this species here in 34 years of birding." This will help give us context for records that may not immediately appear unusual to the regional editors. In many cases this field will be blank.

If you like, you can delete the rows that contain species that you did not see. If you see multiple individuals and need more rows, simply highlight the row and Copy and Paste as many additional rows as you need for that species. Please do not delete any columns, as the regional editors use these to help organize records.