E-Bird Global Big Day 11 May 2024 - Put Norfolk Island on the Map!!!

On Saturday 11 May, birding’s biggest day is back!

Global Big Day is an annual celebration of the birds around you, and this year is no different. Whether you are at home or out and about, Global Big Day is still an opportunity to check in with the birds in and around where you live. Join us on Saturday 11 May and be a part of a global birding community by sharing what birds you see around you with eBird.

Participating is easy. Wherever you are, you can be a part of the global community of birders on 11 May. Please remember to always put safety first and follow all local safety guidelines and closures. You can enjoy birds from inside your home and still be part of Global Big Day.

Saturday 11 May is E-Bird Global Big Day. Check out the internet link and join the world-wide day recording the birds you see, in our back yard or out and about exploring the great outdoors.

Put Norfolk Island on the e-Bird map, the last few years I have joined in, and I had fun looking and recording the birds at home and down at Kingston. During the past month there has been Egrets sighted at Kingston, and other interesting birds have been spotted at the Kingston foreshore and at Mission Pool and other water dams during recent months. I wonder how many birds will be recorded on Norfolk Island on Saturday.

Follow the local Facebook page, Norfolk Island Birds, there are excellent photos regularly posted to the page with information of bird sightings.

Norfolk Island Birds | Facebook

How many birds can be seen in one day?

Global Big Day—11 May 2024 - eBird

On May 11, will you join more than 58,000 others and become a part of Global Big Day? You don’t have to commit to all 24 hours—just an hour or even 10 minutes counts as participating. Visit your favourite spot or search out someplace new; enjoy a solo walk or get some friends to join in the fun.

How to participate

Get an eBird account: eBird is a worldwide bird checklist program used by hundreds of thousands of birders. It’s what allows us to compile everyone’s sightings into a single massive Global Big Day list—while at the same time collecting the data for scientists to use to better understand birds. Sign up. It is free.

Watch birds on 11 May: It is that simple. You do not need to be a bird expert or go out all day long. Even 10 minutes in your backyard will help. Global Big Day runs from midnight to midnight in your local time zone. You can report birds from anywhere in the world.

Enter what you see and hear on eBird: You can enter your sightings via our website or—even easier—download the free eBird Mobile app. Global Big Day—11 May 2024 - eBirdYou can enter and submit lists while you are still out birding, and the app will even keep track of how far you have walked, so you can just focus on watching birds. While you are downloading free apps, try out the Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID app for help with identification. Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab on the App Store (apple.com)

Watch the sightings roll in: During the day, keep an eye on how the lists are growing in different parts of the world. Follow along with sightings from more than 150 countries, including the Cornell Lab’s Team Sapsucker in Colombia, Honduras, and California. Stats will be updated in real-time on our Global Big Day page.

Global Big Day Pro Tips

If you can spare at least 5 or 10 minutes, report your observations to eBird online or with our free eBird Mobile app. If you have more time, submit checklists of birds throughout the day at different times. Can you find more birds in the morning, or the evening? You never know what you might spot.

Get together with friends and set a goal for your birding—most unusual species? biggest flock? all the species in your favourite family? The possibilities are endless. Put your plans on the worldwide Global Big Day map.

Take photos and sound recordings then add them to your checklist—they might end up on the Global Big Day page!

Make your sightings most valuable: submit complete checklists; keep counts of the birds that you see; and keep multiple checklists throughout the course of your birding—if you get in the car, end that checklist, and start a new one when you get to the next location.

This year, Global Big Day will focus on the number of checklists we can collect as a global team.

Last year, Global Big Day collected more data about birds on a single day than ever before. More than 58,000 people gathered 3.2 million bird observations on 148,000 checklists, setting new world records for a single day of birding. Will you help us make this the year we surpass 150,000 checklists on a single day?

Will you join us on Global Big Day 2024? Help us set a new checklist record!

This Saturday, May 11, we hope you will be a part of birding’s next world record.

And no matter what you do, have fun, enjoy the birds you find, and share your sightings on eBird. Because in our world, every bird counts

Betty Matthews

10 May 2024