A long-standing program sponsored by the National Audubon Society, the Christmas Bird Count takes place each winter from December 14 to January 5 in designated 15-mile (24-km) circles across North America. Each circle count is conducted in one day. Thousands of bird watchers participate in this annual bird census, contributing data that is invaluable to assessing North American bird populations and guiding conservation action.

BWD Contributor Julie Zickefoose contrives a solution for a vexing problem. This setup allows full natural light to enter the windows, but safely bounces incoming birds.

We receive a lot of bird questions here at Bird Watcher's Digest. Since the earliest days of our magazine, we've taken seriously our responsibility as a source of accurate, reliable information about birds, so we've tried to answer each question as fully and clearly as possible. Some visitors have been taking advantage of the discussion features on our website and on Facebook to ask a variety of interesting questions or to chime in to address queries posted by other bird watchers. We've grabbed a few recent Q&As to feature here.

To some, sparrows may seem insignificant—a group of mostly small, mostly brown, superficially similar songbirds. Even those of us who love birds may be tempted to brush sparrows off as "little brown jobs." But the truth is that there are several dozen sparrow species in North America alone, and each is unique with something special to offer. As the weather continues to turn colder, many types of sparrows are moving south, showing up in weedy fields, along woodland edges, and at backyard feeders across the country. How much do you know about this ubiquitous group of birds? Take our quiz!