In early 2006, a population crash of Tree Sparrows Passer montanus was observed in the central areas of Hokkaido, which is located in northern Japan. We devised a simple point count method to monitor the Tree Sparrow population and requested citizens and bird watchers, as well as researchers, to participate in the census. The reported abundance of Tree Sparrows had no regional difference between the Kanto Region of Honshu (3.6 birds/0.78ha) which has no snowfall, and Hokkaido (3.8 birds/0.78ha) which receives heavy snowfall. Tree Sparrow abundance in both regions was 3.6 birds/0.78ha in both summer and winter of 2006-7. The comparison between the sites with and without bird feeders in Hokkaido, however, showed a significant seasonal difference in sparrow abundance. A larger number of sparrows congregated at sites with feeders in winter. It suggests that sparrows would be more vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases at feeders in winter in Hokkaido. Therefore, management rules should be established to maintain feeder hygiene and to limit the number of birds at the feeders. In order to continue this survey, the method should be simple and easy for citizens to carry out. In addition, the number of replicates must be large to control for a large variance. The future challenge of this approach is to increase the number of replicates (e.g. observers) in order to develop greater stability of data values, and to allow a larger number of factors that can be analyzed. Since Tree Sparrows are probably the most familiar garden birds in Japan, they serve as an indicator species of the environmental health of human habitats. Therefore, this census method is strongly recommended for schools and nature education programs.