A Big Year is a 12-month competitive pursuit of birds under loose rules set by the American Birding Association. You can count any birds spotted or heard in the United States and Canada but not Hawaii, the Bahamas, Greenland, Mexico or the Caribbean.
About 650 species breed in that region, and another 670 species visit regularly. But other birds species, perhaps as many as 290, may wander or be blown in with storms from Mexico, Asia and Europe.
A Big Year relies on the honor system. No witnesses or photographs must be produced as evidence. Birds spotted are listed in notebooks with details.
There are no prizes, just the bragging rights associated with perhaps having the Biggest Year.
The Big Year was spawned by noted birder Roger Tory Peterson, who reported in the book Wild America that he had seen 572 species in 1953.
It was the subject of a recent film comedy, The Big Year, with Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin. Black portrayed birder Greg Miller of Sugarcreek in Tuscarawas County, who did a Big Year in 1998 and logged 715 species.
To succeed takes tenacity, hard work, birding skills and lots of luck. The trick to doing well is to chase down unusual visitors. That can be done via contact with a network of serious bird watchers, Internet alerts and cell phones. But it means being willing and able to fly across the country on short notice. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t.
About 50 American birders a year do Big Years.
A Cincinnati birder, Matt Stenger, is also doing a Big Year and has logged 676 species. His blog is www.716birds.com.
— Bob Downing