It’s December in Orange County, FL, and the Christmas Chicken Depend is on. For college kids at Zellwood Elementary and Wolf Lake Center Faculty, which means they set their eyes on the skies for this century-old group science initiative – with a little bit assist from Orange Audubon Society (OAS).
Orange Audubon Schooling Coordinator Kathy Rigling has led the hassle to contain college students within the Christmas Chicken Depend for 3 years. Utilizing Audubon grants, OAS bought high-quality binoculars for the scholars to borrow through the depend. Rigling created a nine-minute video for lecturers to clarify the group science effort to doc all of the birds seen or heard, offering a snapshot of chicken inhabitants tendencies. In the course of the Christmas Chicken Depend, groups throughout the hemisphere are organized and assigned particular areas to survey birds inside 15-mile depend circles of their area.
College students, after all, have to suit the depend inside their class schedules, so every collaborating class allotted round 45 minutes to vary throughout campus counting birds and species. Rigling and volunteers write down the birds and switch sightings into an eBird record to report again to the scholars and the Christmas Chicken Depend coordinators. Utilizing extra grant funding, Orange Audubon continues to work with collaborating faculties to reinforce campus chicken habitat so college students in future years can discover even extra species.
Assume age retains the youngest youngsters from collaborating? Assume once more! “The kindergarten and first grade college students did a easy tally sheet with chicken colours and never precise species, however they have been capable of get the thought of what we have been doing,” explains Rigling.
2025-2026 Highlights
Throughout each faculties, college students recorded 40 chicken species. They began at Zellwood with a beautiful Baltimore Oriole in a pine tree. Moreover, “the elementary college students have been fascinated with the Palm Warblers that have been comparatively simple to see foraging on the bottom. They have been excited to listen to how far these tiny warblers migrate annually,” says Rigling.
Over on the center college, college students celebrated once they noticed three American White Pelicans flying comparatively low over their campus. Additionally they recorded a blended flock of Black-and-white Warblers, Tufted Titmice, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and a Blue-headed Vireo.
General, 37 courses participated this yr, starting from pre-Okay via eighth grade.
“I’ve visited Zellwood a number of occasions and final yr after the Christmas Chicken Depend so many college students got here as much as me and have been excited to share that they keep in mind going out and counting the birds,” Rigling provides. “It makes an actual influence on them.”
Audubon Florida’s Chapters Conservation Supervisor Kristen Kosik agrees: “It is so essential to indicate college students of all ages that they will instantly contribute to science and conservation. Collaborating in a Christmas Chicken Depend is an excellent strategy to jumpstart their birding and science adventures!”
