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Inspiring Results from Global Big Day 2023

24 Apr 2024
Andrew Griebeler

Andrew Griebeler, March eBirder of the Month

Birds have the power to inspire and unite. Every Global Big Day recognizes our connection to birds, nature, and each other. On Saturday, 13 May, more than 58,700 people joined together to celebrate birds for Global Big Day on World Migratory Bird Day. That’s an astounding seven thousand more people who went birding compared to last year’s Global Big Day.

Together, the global birding community reported 7,636 species of birds on nearly 150,000 eBird checklists. Almost half of those species were photographed and ten percent had their sounds recorded on Global Big Day. eBirders gathered more than 3.2 million bird sightings on 13 May, which are now freely available to support conservation and research worldwide. Never before has this much information about birds been gathered on a single day. This phenomenal achievement belongs to every single person who took part. Thank you.

These accomplishments are possible thanks, in large part, to the efforts of local and regional conservation groups around the world including the eBird portal collaborator network and the Global Birding team. We appreciate working with these inspiring groups. Thanks also to Carl Zeiss Sports Optics for their continuing sponsorship of eBirder of the Month, including the opportunity to win new Zeiss SFL binoculars by participating in Global Big Day.

Global Big Day by the numbers

  • 647,000 people identified birds with Merlin Bird ID—the most ever in one day
  • 148,270 checklists submitted (16,000 more than 2022)
  • 58,756 eBirders from 199 countries (7,300 more people than 2022)
  • 7,636 species recorded
  • 72,561 photos of 3,667 species shared with the Macaulay Library
  • 3,475 audio recordings of 894 species shared with the Macaulay Library

Explore more Global Big Day results

View these results as a table


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