credit – Curated Lifestyle for Unsplash+A vast collaboration of birding organizations has organized the largest citizen science project in the history of ornithology—a ‘Big Day’ with 201 countries participating.
Documenting 7,800 species in a single day, (there are around 11,000 species known in the world) the October 12th Big Day succeeded in recruiting 748,000 birders for the job, and producing 66,000 photos for a scientific library.
The 10/12 Big Day was organized by eBird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the birding app Merlin, and dozens of continental and national birding groups.
“To every birder who took part in October Big Day: thank you. Your passion, dedication, and love for birds are what make this event truly special,” eBird’s press team wrote in a statement. “Together, we’ve contributed data that will help inform the conservation of birds for generations to come.”
The name ‘Big Day’ comes from the typical birding phrase ‘Big Year;’ one in which a birdwatcher plans to try and see as many species as she or he can in a single year.
Standout performances this year were seen in Italy, where eBird Italia registered a doubling of users, and a 229% increase in checklists submitted bettered only by Tanzania in year-over-year increases.
Unsurprisingly, Colombia, which has the largest number of endemic birds of any country on Earth, recorded the highest number of bird sightings. Tanzania recorded the highest number of species in an African country (772) and India recorded the most for Asia (750).
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Data from birdwatching events like this can help inform the conservation status of birds year after year. While scientists may be able to carefully track the populations of single animals, such work is expensive and time-consuming.
Along with being free of cost to science, citizen science initiatives like the Big Day create a greater picture of overall bird diversity and abundance.
The next Big Day is on May 10th.
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