by Dan Casey via Team EBird
People in 191 countries joined together to celebrate birds on October 14th, 2023, during the “October Big Day” sponsored by Cornell’s eBird program. More than 36,000 people contributed 83,735 checklists for the single biggest day in October birding history. The 7,525 species reported was a 72-species increase over the 2022 October Big Day, a testament to the power of birding to bring people together in a common effort.
Global Big Days not only help to highlight the avian diversity of our planet, but they also help call attention to the role that citizen science can play toward improving our knowledge of bird abundance and distribution. Here in Montana, 253 checklists were submitted from 33 of our 56 counties, with 145 species reported. Twenty-two observers reported a total of 67 species on 28 checklists here in Flathead County. To further explore the results of this year’s effort, see: https://ebird.org/octoberbigday