the most species seen worldwide on May 9th, that one Brazilian eBirder stated: “This is like watching a World Cup match!” We can think of no higher praise. In fact, the Global Big Day was such a hit that SAVE Brasil has organized the Big Day Brasil Primavera 2015.
We’re thrilled to announce a new collaboration with the Macaulay Library that will enable you to add photos and sounds directly to your eBird checklists. Each piece of media you upload will become a digitally archived specimen. This collaboration will build an archive of media associated with complete checklists of bird observations from around the world. With tens of thousands of eBirders across the globe contributing media, the potential to generate a digital library on a previously unimaginable scale is incredible. This collaboration provides a tremendous opportunity to document bird observations worldwide and provides a stable, long-term, and easy-to-use archive for your images and audio. We aim to launch this new functionality throughout eBird within the next couple months. Want to try it out sooner than that? Read on.
Please join us in congratulating Adrien Mauss of Mulhouse, France, winner of the August 2015 eBird Challenge, sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optic. Our August winner was drawn from among those who submitted at least 31 complete checklists in August. Adrien’s name was drawn randomly from the 1,878 eBirders who achieved the August challenge threshold. Adrien will receive new ZEISS Conquest HD 8×42 binoculars for his eBirding efforts. We asked Adrien to tell us a little more about himself, his use of eBird, and his love of birds – read on for more!
In 2015, Noah Strycker is attempting to become the first person to see 5000 species of birds—about half of the avian species on Earth—in one calendar year! Noah is now more than two-thirds through 365 straight days of birding around the globe, with an itinerary covering 34 countries and all seven continents, on one continuous, all-out, global birding trip. To date he has covered Antarctica, South and Central America, Europe, and Africa, tallying a fantastic 4267 species – more than 80% of the way to his goal, and just a handful of species away from the all-time record. Noah is using eBird to keep track of his sightings and to help strategize during his quest, as well as to connect with many other birders as he travels. You can see his daily blog accounts on Birding Without Borders. He has been kind enough to write up a summary of his travels for us each month – you can find his notes from August here!
The Birding Aboard project is comprised of a global oceangoing observer network—people whose love of boating is complemented with an interest in birds. Volunteers across the world keep track of the birds that they see, reporting offshore sightings (at least two miles from shore), and often documenting these observations with photos. This includes people cruising along the eastern seaboard of North America; boaters cruising through the high arctic; and sailors circumnavigating the world. Featured here is an press release overview of the Birding Aboard project, including some of the highlights that people have seen from every corner of the world’s oceans. It’ll make you want to get on a boat and head for a blue horizon. Click here to read more.
This month’s eBirder of the month challenge, sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, is going to keep your eyes trained skyward. In September, birds are in the throes of migration on a global scale. In North America, almost every group of migrant birds is in full-blown movement over the coming month. This means that in addition to great birding, there is also the chance to witness visible migration events happening right overhead. By keeping an eye cast upwards and noting the birds that pass overhead, we can gain a more complete understanding of which birds are using a habitat, and which are just passing through. The eBirder of the month will be drawn from eBirders who submit at least 30 complete checklists containing one or more Flyover codes during September. That