2020 Inspiration: How to do a Big Year
A Big Year is a big achievement for any birder. No matter the number of birds in your final count, the experiences of a year committed to birding are incredible. The beginning of a new year brings hope, the setting of resolutions — and a fresh opportunity to complete a Big Year. If you are thinking that 2020 is your year to go big, read up now on some tips from the BirdsEye Blog.
In Tips to Complete a Successful Big Year, we interviewed three Big Year experts about completing the challenge. Here are some highlights:
- A big year is whatever you want to make of it. Commit whatever time and resources you want — from keeping it local to traveling across the country
- It’s easier to do a Big Year when it’s local because you’re not killing yourself doing field trips, camping, traveling long distances.
- If you want to do a national Big Year, traveling across the country, it takes commitment, serious drive, and lots of time.
- Document your journey on eBird, share your experiences through the local birding listserves, or better yet, create a blog and share your own story through blog posts.
- The number one thing you need: an understanding of the status and distribution of species. This couldn’t be easier now with all the data available on eBird and apps like BirdsEye.
This year we also talked with Taylor Páez about her year as a "dirtbag birder" — doing a Big Year on the road. In 2017 Taylor traversed 44 states, sleeping in the back of her Ford Ranger and on friends' couches, and ended with 643 bird species on her Big Year list. If you are curious about how to keep Big Year costs low (but commitment very high!), read our article on Taylor. |
|
A birding revolution in the Amazon
Fostering a love of birds through education in the Amazon, CONAPAC is increasing environmental awareness and jump-starting a birding revolution in Peru. After three years, their efforts culminated in the first-ever bird festivals in the Loreto region. More than 1000 students from 26 remote Amazon rainforest communities gathered this September to share elaborate performances, bird-inspired art, and discuss the impact of birding in their communities.
|
|
Maximize your 2020 birding efforts with
BirdsEye nature apps!
BirdsEye is the must have app for birders of any level, naturalists, and educators. You can explore the 100 most common birds for free to learn about local birds wherever you are. Features include:
- In-depth information about birds across the globe. Subscribe to a specific region or buy a worldwide membership to get it all!
- “Smart search” tool helps you ID birds with confidence
- Citizen Science Sourced Photos in various life stages and plumage
- Maps & charts, sound files, and rare bird alerts
Our suite of apps also include the field guides Birds of Peru and Birds of Ecuador, Bumble Bee Watch, Dragonfly and Damselfly Field Guide, and Daily Bird, a bird-a-day calendar using our beautiful user-sourced photos.
And if you are a photographer, learn how to use our photo site, birdseye.photo, to up your photography game!
|
|
Cheers to all of your 2020 birding adventures! 🥂
|
|
Birds of Ecuador Field Guide app is live for
Android and iPhone!
|
|
Birds in the Hand, LLC partnered with Cornell University Press to bring you the interactive mobile field guide version of The Birds of Ecuador by Robert S. Ridgely and Paul J. Greenfield. Like the paper edition, it is the most complete and authoritative field guide to the more than 1600 bird species found throughout Ecuador, but it includes much more.
Features of the app:
• Detailed species accounts for all of Ecuador’s 1600+ bird species
• Audio recordings for over 1500 species to help identify unknown bird calls in the field or to study for an upcoming trip
• Gorgeous illustrations for every species, showing all major plumages, morphs, and geographic variations.
• Interactive Smart Search tool helps narrow down birds by region, color, size, and habitat
• Sort birds by region or filter the species list to only show birds nearby you.
• Easily keep track of your Ecuador Life List
|
|
Winners of the Birds of South America Photo Contest
From July to the end of September, birdseye.photo was flooded with hundreds of beautiful photos for our Birds of South America photo contest. We got dozens of parrots, tanagers, gulls, owls, ducks, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, hawks, herons, and more - oh my!
It was extremely difficult to pick just three winners, but after much deliberation we selected photos by Debbie Reynolds, Alexandre Gualhanone, and Bonnie Flamer. Congrats to the winners!
And very big THANK YOU to everyone who participated! Your brilliant photos are helping the birding community across the world.
|
|
Upcoming Birding Events
North Shore Birding Festival
January 16-20, 2020 — Mount Dora, Florida
Everglades Birding Festival
January 16-20, 2020 — Davie, Florida
Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival
January 17-20, 2020 — Morro Bay, California
Galt Winter Bird Festival
February 1, 2020 — Galt, California
8th Laredo Birding Festival
February 5-8, 2020 — Laredo, Texas
High Plains Snow Goose Festival
February 6-9, 2020 — Lamar, CO
|
|
|
MEMBERSHIP SAVINGS ON OUR WEBSITE
Did you know that the best prices for BirdsEye memberships can be found at the BirdsEyeBirding.com online shop? Memberships sold through the website aren't subject to any fees from Apple allowing us to pass on savings to you AND more of your money goes to support new BirdsEye development.
In addition, any new memberships set up on the website get a free month of membership, regardless of whether you already bought a membership through the app.
FAQ on transferring membership from Google Play or iTunes to BirdsEyeBirding.com
|
|
|
 BirdsEye
Our flagship app is focused on bird finding. We analyze millions of eBird sightings each month to bring you instant access to all the sightings that are important to you. BirdsEye makes it easy to see the birds around you, and build your year and life list for any region.
Free download for iOS devices and Android devices. |
More apps
We have a variety of other apps for national wildlife refuges, ornithological societies, and birding festivals. See our complete portfolio on the App Store and Play Store.
Is your organization interested in a custom app with your own branding? It makes a great publicity and recruitment tool. Check out our info page and get in touch!
|
|
|
BirdsEye is always looking for ways to highlight the people doing exceptional work in the birding community. Do you know a deserving birder worthy of being featured? If so, please email us at info@birdsinthehand.com with your nominations.
|
|
|
|
|
