A Safron-crowned Tanager is emblematic of the beauty and diversity of tropical birds in Ecuador (photo courtesy Cananas San Isidro). A White-throated Toucan was one of 431 species sighted during the record-breaking Big Day in Ecuador (photo by Kevin Berkoff via BirdsEye.Photo).

As the clock struck midnight on October 8th, four birders set out from San Isidro, Ecuador, a cloud forest site on the east slope of the Andes Mountains to try to set a birding world record. More specifically, they intended to break the record for most bird species identified in a single day – a Big Day. Their birding goal: 355 species of birds! Cabanas San Isidro is a great place to begin; it’s a relatively well-known lodge among birders, surrounded by cloud forest on the eastern slope of Continental Divide of the Andes just two hours east of the capitol of Quito. At midnight, though; the team is tuned in on bird calls emitted from the darkness.

Big Days are usually conducted under a set of guidelines, and the Ecuador team decided to follow the American Birding Association (ABA) rules. Therefore, their Big Day consisted of a single team effort in which the primary objectives were “(1) to identify as many bird species as possible during a single calendar day and (2) to strive to have all team members observe and identify all species recorded.” To qualify as a Big Day Count, all birds identified must be counted within a single 24-hour period during a single calendar day. Incidentally, there are no guidelines about where the Big Day Count can be conducted.

The team chose Ecuador as their Big Day location for two reasons: First, they all love the country and have extensively documented birds there for many years. Second, and most importantly, was Ecuador’s incredible avian diversity with coastal rainforests in the west, the vast Amazon rainforest in the east, and the daunting spine of the Andes Mountains that offered stunning elevation gradients with varied habitats that support an incredible variety of birds.

The birding team consisted of Dusan Brinkhuizen, Rudy Gelis, Tuomas Seimola, and Mitch Lysinger – all professional birding guides who planned for years to conduct their Big Day in Ecuador with the idea of breaking the world record. In the months leading up to their Big Day count, Rudy promoted the team with a GoFundMe page to raise money to support their efforts. During the week before the count, Dusan coordinated with Rudy and Tuomas to go birding each day from 3am to 2pm; Mitch joined the team the day of the event.

During their preparation, the team honed their bird identification techniques and planned their route with excruciating detail, because every minute counts during a Big Day. The team’s goal was simple: To break the Big Day world record set by a group of scientists from Louisiana State University the year before in 2014.

The team began their Big Day searching for owls and other night birds in the heart of the cloud forest, using their ears more than their eyes, working their way downslope toward the western edge of the Amazon basin. Before dawn (about 5am), the team arrived in the Amazon to begin their more visual search for birds, but utilizing the dawn chorus to locate and identify species. By the time the team was on the Napo River, they were detecting bird species right and left, by sight and sound.

Endurance kicked in very early in the day, and the need to keep alert and keep enthusiastic became obvious, and team members helped to keep one another motivated. Team member Rudy Geis recalled, “It was a frenzied mix of jogging, running, walking, driving, all the while visually searching and listening intently for 24 hours.”

Eventually the birders returned to higher elevation cloud forests to tally more birds, and continued upward along the slope of the high Andes. Near sundown, Dusan, the official recorder, knew they had already broken the record, but with more than 380 species already counted, he kept this secret from his teammates to keep everyone’s energy high for the day’s final big push: A short airline flight to the coast.

Most teams complete a Big Day using only a car, while others avoid motors and only use canoes, bicycles, and their feet. There is no rule that prohibits flying, and the team used that option to their advantage: That evening, the team caught a commercial flight from Quito to the Pacific Coast, where the team added another 39 birds at a wetland near salt flats. What was the World Record Big Day experience like? “It was brutal,” Rudy explained, fueled by “over-the-top energy – crazy adrenaline.”

By the end of their 24-hour Big Day, the Ecuador team identified 431 species of birds! The total shattered the previous record by more than 70 species. Of the 431 species identified, 305 birds (71 percent) were observed, 126 birds (29 percent) were only heard, and 415 birds (96 percent) were verified by all four team members. During their Big Day, the record-setting team traveled 239 miles by car and 233 miles by plane, and they traversed 12,960 vertical feet from near sea level to their highest mountain birding location.

Big Day Advice

If you’re planning to participate in a Big Day, this year or in the future, Rudy Gelis offered the following tips for success:

* Don’t eat much, just snack.

* Find out where birds are roosting so you can find them when they become active in the morning.

* Determine what time of year you will find the greatest diversity of birds in your locale. This is often the date with the highest probability for a diversity of shorebirds and warblers.

* Contact a birding group or conservation society for assistance.

* Try to include young birders however you can.

* Test yourself locally.

* Think about the weather and the time of day when thermals are produced to add soaring raptors to your list, and learn when owls are vocalizing.

* Make your efforts fun as well as challenging.

* Test yourself in new habitats; use the opportunity to push yourself.

The original article appears in the BirdsEye Birding website, and includes video interviews with two of the Big Day birders, which you can listen to at http://www.birdseyebirding.com/2019/05/02/big-day-world-record-in-ecuador/ and be sure to check out the BirdsEye Birding Apps while you’re on site.

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