#BigYearAtHome Team
Mike Green rides from Portland, Oregon, to 4,000 feet in elevation to find a Sooty Grouse. #GreenBirding Photo credit: Mike Green
In celebration of the August #BigYearAtHome challenge, #BirdingFromHome, we are featuring a fun article by Mike Green, a #BigYearAtHome Team Member. Mike works with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Migratory Birds and each year he and his fellow staff members take part in a Big Year contest, and this year they are #GreenBirding as part of their Big Year. CLICK HERE to read Mike’s blog about his 2021 Green Big Year.
A Big Year is a friendly competition among birders for who can see the most birds in one year within a single geographic area. Mike and his fellow workers use this contest to encourage all staff within their program to get outside and watch birds, particularly encouraging “non-birders” to participate. Their competition is not simply about the numbers of birds that you might see in a year; it is also about the number of new species you find (which birders call “lifers”), the number of birding events you participate in, the number of birders you take with you, and the number of species you might see only in your yard, and many other specialty categories. And this year we added the “green” category to many of the traditional categories — birds seen without expending fossil fuels (aka #GreenBirding).
To learn more about the August #BigYearAtHome challenge, #BirdingFromHome, CLICK HERE. And remember to step outside, or take a bike ride, and enjoy the birds around you.
BREAKING NEWS — we’ve added a prize to the August Challenge. We will add all new participants who share a #BirdingFromHome eBird checklist with the #BigYearAtHome eBird account to a raffle for this reusable Klamath Bird Observatory water bottle. How to enter —
- If you don’t have an eBird account, sign up (CLICK HERE to learn more about getting started with eBird)
- Go #BirdingFromHome and log what you see into eBird — remember to enter #BirdingFromHome into the checklist notes
- Share your checklist with #BigYearAtHome eBird account, account name “BigYearAtHome” (CLICK HERE to learn more about sharing your eBird checklist)
Thanks for participating!