Even with increased development in the area, Reston’s bird population has remained steady — at least according to Reston Association’s annual bird counts.
The organization’s environmental staff and volunteers identified 1,685 individual birds from 52 different species during their 2025 Reston Winter Bird Count, which was conducted on a Saturday in early January.
The winter count typically records about 50 different species, but the number of individual birds spotted this year dropped below the average of 2,180 birds. Walker Nature Center naturalist Abby Stocking attributed the decline to the day when the count was conducted being particularly “blustery.”
“These results show how important our wooded areas, lakes and streams are to wildlife,” Stocking said in a Jan. 15 news release. “The larger patches of open space that the association maintains provide shelter, food and space for a great diversity of species, not just birds.”
The most frequently-spotted birds in this winter’s count were the American robin and Canadian goose, but the survey also documented a bald eagle, a red-shouldered hawk, hermit thrush and the pileated woodpecker — Reston’s official bird and one of Walker Nature Center’s mascots.
Among the more unusual sightings was a diving duck called a common merganser, which had only appeared in a winter count twice before, and a snow goose was seen on Lake Thoreau.
It was the first time a snow goose had been spotted during the winter count. Distinctive for a black line along its beak, snow geese typically pass through Reston while migrating, but they’re not usually in the area in the winter, according to Stocking.
RA began conducting winter bird counts in 1996 to create an inventory of the different species living in Reston’s natural areas, RA communications director Cara O’Donnell says. The community organization also started conducting summer bird counts shortly thereafter, with data going back to 1997.
“We continue to see results of both numbers of species and numbers of individuals that remain around our average, although it can fluctuate due to weather conditions which have varied widely in the last several years,” O’Donnell told FFXnow.
Though avian influenza or bird flu is commonly found among some wild birds, especially waterfowl and shorebirds, O’Donnell says no dead birds have been reported by members or staff recently.
A strain of the bird flu known as H5N1 that were detected in wild birds around the U.S. in 2022 has triggered outbreaks among domestic and backyard poultry flocks. The virus spread to dairy cows for the first time in March 2024, and as of Jan. 6, the U.S. has confirmed 67 infections in humans since 2022, including one death of a man in Louisiana.
No cases in cows or people have been reported in Virginia so far, though there have been some infections in birds, the Virginia Department of Health says. Nationwide, nearly 150 million birds have been affected by avian influenza since January 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The risk of infection for humans is still considered low, but it may be higher for farm workers, hunters and anyone else who could be exposed to an infected animal. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources says anyone who regularly interacts with waterfowl or sick or dead birds should take precautions.
