Widespread across most of North America, a first-fall Northern Harrier may be on your list of birds observed during the October Big Day (photo by Paul Konrad).
Silver-eared Mesias should be reported by many birders in Southeast Asia who participate in the October Big Day on Saturday, October 17th (photo by Luke Seitz).
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Do you have your Big Day of birding planned for October 17th? It’s the biggest fall birding event in the world! The October Big Day is a 24-hour opportunity to identify, count, and report all the birds you observe in coordination with birders from around the world. Although you may want to narrow down your interactions with other birders this year, you can make it the most birding fun you have this fall. Use it as an incentive to see what birds you can find on your own, and what totals you can tally at your favorite local birding sites, which includes your own yard, of course.
Everyone is encouraged to join the fun! This is an opportunity for you to join the world community of birders with a common goal of documenting “what birds are found where” on a mid-October day – worldwide. Last year, a total of 6,711 different species of wild birds were observed by birders in 165 different countries!
Participating in the October Big Day is a simple 4-Step Process:
·1) Start an eBird account: If you aren’t already signed up for eBird online, it’s Easy – and it’s Free. eBird is a bird checklist program used by millions of birders worldwide, that allows eBird to compile everyone’s sightings into a single massive October Big Day list, while at the same time collecting the information for scientists to use to better understand birds and their movements. Sign up for eBird at https://secure.birds.cornell.edu/cassso/account/create
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·2) Observe birds on October 17. Just identify and count all the birds you see at a given location – it’s that simple! You can participate in your yard, your neighborhood, a local refuge or nature center, anywhere you choose – you can even participate by birding at more than one location; just report your results to eBird separately for each birding location you visit. The October Big Day runs from midnight to midnight in your local time zone, but you don’t need to participate all day – even a half-hour of birding at your favorite location will be helpful. You don’t need to be a wild bird expert, you just need to be able to identify and count the birds you see, and anyone can report birds from anywhere in the world.
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3) Report the birds you see on eBird: You can report your sightings at https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000957911
4) Watch the bird sightings roll in: Throughout the day and night of October 17, it’s great fun to watch the numbers of sightings, the kinds of birds people see, and where other birders are reporting from across the country and around the world – from more than 165 countries last year! Statistics will be updated in real time at https://ebird.org/octoberbigday Although this interesting webpage currently shows the exciting statistics and information from last year’s October Big Day – you can enjoy comparing different countries and the birds reported in 2019 in advance of this year’s event.
For more information about the October Big Day, see https://ebird.org/news/october-big-day-2020-bigger-than-ever
Win Zeiss Binoculars!
To help celebrate October Big Day, Zeiss Sports Optics will generously award Zeiss Victory SF32 Binoculars to 2 birders drawn from the pool of birders who submit 5 or more October Big Day checklists to eBird on October 17th! For more information about your chance to win a new pair of Zeiss binoculars, see https://ebird.org/news/october-ebirder-of-the-month-challenge-2020
Everyone recognizes that the Covid pandemic continues to impact our communities, and even if your local conditions have improved, October Big Day organizers encourage everyone to put your health safety, and the health safety of others first. Please follow local Covid guidelines, yet enjoy your birding activities under safe conditions. If you are homebound for health reasons, you can still participate during October Big Day by recording the birds you see out your windows! Everyone can participate, everyone is welcome, and you will find joining the fun personally fulfilling in that you will be contributing to an expansive citizen-science event.
Article by Paul Konrad