Christmas Bird Count 2025
On December 21, 2024, the Christmas Bird Count was conducted in Ensenada, an event organized worldwide by the National Audubon Society. During this event, different teams cover various sectors of the city, within a 12 km radius, counting and collecting data on all the birds observed that day. This citizen science event helps us monitor changes in the biodiversity of our city.
Mujeres en Parvada covered the sector belonging to the Estero de Punta Banda. We started with a very cold and foggy day, which fortunately gradually cleared, giving way to a bright sun. In the first area, known as El Dique, we observed herons, egrets, cormorants, grebes and some ducks. Further ahead, with the help of the spotting scopes, we observed large concentrations of shorebirds: sandpipers, plovers, godwits, and some curlews. Also, several groups of ducks, such as the American Wigeon and Ruddy Duck.
In the beach area we saw lots of sanderlings, and we also counted pelicans, vultures, and some grebes that were in the bay. We were able to see the charismatic Snowy Plover, and different groups of seagulls.
We returned to the internal area of the sandbar, where we recorded a Parasitic Jaeger that flew by and we were able to photograph, as well as loons, grebes and more shorebirds. At dusk, as we were walking along the Pro Esteros trail, we saw a group of brantas swimming, and we were able to hear several pairs of Ridgway's Rails, with their characteristic sound: kek kek kek kek kek!
It was a tiring day, but very productive, we recorded 93 species of birds!, which leaves no doubt of the enormous importance of the Estero de Punta Banda for birds.
Here are some of the birds we were able to observe and photograph that day, we hope you enjoy them!
