Wednesday, March 11, 2020

The ABA Young Birders of the Year

Gracie McMahon from Rockford, Illinois is the Young Birder of the Year in the 10 to 13 age category.
The Young Birder of the Year in the 14 to 18 age category winner is Adrianna Nelson from Bristol, Tennessee.

Two impressive young birders have been selected as the American Birding Association’s 2020 ABA Young Birders of the Year: Gracie McMahon from Rockford, Illinois has been named the Young Birder of the Year in the 10 to 13 age category; and the 14 to 18 age category winner is Adrianna Nelson from Bristol, Tennessee. Their efforts stood out among a distinguished group of young birders who participated in this event in both age categories, and we salute their dedicated efforts to excel and improve in varied categories of competition.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this prestigious competition! As the top finishers, Gracie and Adrianna will both receive Leica Trinovid binoculars provided by Leica Sport Optics, the ABA’s Legacy Sponsor for the Young Birder of the Year Program.

The 2021 program begins April 17, so mark your calendars and consider participating this year!

Initiated in 1998, the ABA Young Birder of the Year program encourages, mentors, and develops the talents of teenage birders and has an incredible track record of influencing up and coming leaders in the birding community. Participants in the program choose among five birding modules: Field Notebook, Conservation & Community Leadership, Photography, Illustration, and Writing.

Participants study and work within these areas of study from April through October, at which point they submit their portfolios to the ABA’s panels of mentors. These mentors, all volunteers, include many of the ABA Area’s foremost birders, artists, photographers, conservationists, and field ornithologists. The mentors spend hours evaluating and commenting on participants’ entries, and offer detailed, encouraging, useful feedback. Both the young birders and the mentors consistently share how valuable and inspiring they find this process.

All the young birders who complete one of the five modules have accomplished something of real worth that requires significant effort. Teens who choose to complete both the “major” modules – Field Notebook, and Conservation & Community Leadership – or one of the majors plus two of the “minor” modules (Photography, Illustration, or Writing) are eligible to be selected as the ABA Young Birder of the Year in either the 10 to 13 or 14 to 18 age categories. Participating is fun, informative, creative, rewarding, and it is a major achievement in itself.

Again, congratulations to Gracie McMahon and Adrianna Nelson, the winners of the American Birding Association’s 2020 ABA Young Birders of the Year. We would also like to acknowledge other young birders who participated in the program, including August Hazel, Caleb Heisel, Stephen Hurst, William Young, Sierra Glassman, Ashwin Sivajumar, Nathan Tea, Mikail Leksmana, Jared Conaway, Aranya Karighattam, Arav Karighattam, Ashrith Kandula, Silas Powel, Ezra Staengl, Hannes Leonard, Theodore Staengl, and Ronan Nicholson.

To learn more about the ABA’s Young Birders of the Year program, please refer to https://www.aba.org/2020-young-birders-of-the-year/ The 2021 program begins next month on April 17.

To review the list of all the winning birders in each category, see https://www.aba.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/YBY-Finalists-2020.pdf

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