Global Big Day

Last year, during the Global Big Day 2016 we spent a little while in the field watching and trying to photograph birds. We decided to go in the afternoon to the ponds located close to SENAFRONT Head Quarters, on the road to Gamboa, also known as Summit Ponds. We were able to get some nice records but first lets explain what is a Global Big Day.

Global Big Day 2017 will take place Saturday, May 13.

What is Global Big Day?

Global Big Day is an annual event organized by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in association with eBird, celebrated on the second Saturday in May, and now held for the third consecutive year. In birdwatching, a Big Day is a single-team effort in which the primary objective is to identify as many bird species as possible during a single calendar day, and in certain locations has been elevated to competitive status. Then, a Global Big Day is a Big Day taken to global scale, the target is to record as much bird species on a single calendar day while birdwatchers around the world organize and join together either in teams or single as we did, to birdwatch, identify, and record the birds on the eBird app or webpage. 

Being associated with the competitiveness of a Big Day it’s imposible to sense the smell of competition on social networks as the Global Big Day 2017 approaches. What team/person will count more species in my country? Which countries will have the highest counts in the region and in the world? Will last year’s record (6,331 species) be beaten? are some of the questions some people are willing to answer.  

But don’t be fooled, Global Big Day is not a competition, it’s a conservation effort. Global Big Day connects people across the world to support a cause that transcends languages and cultures, working to understand and conserve the birds we care about. Firstly with awareness, and secondly with data.

How to participate?

It’s simple: you submit the birds you have identified to eBird, and they get counted. It is not required to spend the whole day in the field; even backyard lists or short lists as ours count. Please enter your data as soon as you can, preferably by Tuesday, May 16.

If you have not learned to use eBird yet, you can go here.

How are scientists and conservationists using the data?

As more birders join eBird and learn to enter their checklists, the database becomes more and more useful to science. Every eBird record is made freely available to scientific, conservation, and other non-profit uses. Each checklist you submit to eBird provides scientists with an increasingly valuable resource for answering questions about the distribution and abundance of birds.

Researchers in the fields of ecology and conservation frequently conduct studies aimed at answering two questions: Where does a given species live? and How abundant is it? Knowing where species live, what habitats they use, and how abundant they are is the most basic information needed to protect a species. Knowing whether these patterns are changing with time is perhaps even more critical, since changes in bird occurrence can often be one of the first signal of more widespread environmental changes.

Our Global Big Day 2016 list with pictures

40 species total

2	Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis
2	Anhinga Anhinga anhinga
1	Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea
3	Green Heron Butorides virescens
2	Capped Heron Pilherodius pileatus
2	Boat-billed Heron Cochlearius cochlearius
1	Black Vulture Coragyps atratus
2	Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
1	Great Black Hawk Buteogallus urubitinga
2	Gray-cowled Wood-Rail Aramides cajaneus
1	Pale-vented Pigeon Patagioenas cayennensis
2	Ruddy Ground-Dove Columbina talpacoti
2	White-tipped Dove Leptotila verreauxi
4	Greater Ani Crotophaga major
1	Rufous-tailed Hummingbird Amazilia tzacatl
1	Slaty-tailed Trogon Trogon massena
1	Green Kingfisher Chloroceryle americana
2	Yellow-throated Toucan Ramphastos ambiguus
2	Keel-billed Toucan Ramphastos sulfuratus
1	Red-crowned Woodpecker Melanerpes rubricapillus
1	Lineated Woodpecker Dryocopus lineatus
10	Orange-chinned Parakeet Brotogeris jugularis
1	Brown-capped Tyrannulet Ornithion brunneicapillus
1	Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum
1	Panama Flycatcher Myiarchus panamensis
3	Lesser Kiskadee Pitangus lictor
1	Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus
5	Rusty-margined Flycatcher Myiozetetes cayanensis
2	Tropical Kingbird Tyrannus melancholicus
1	Masked Tityra Tityra semifasciata
1	Golden-fronted Greenlet Pachysylvia aurantiifrons
2	Mangrove Swallow Tachycineta albilinea
2	Clay-colored Thrush Turdus grayi
2	Variable Seedeater Sporophila corvina
1	Red-throated Ant-Tanager Habia fuscicauda
1	Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus
1	Giant Cowbird Molothrus oryzivorus
10	Yellow-rumped Cacique Cacicus cela
8	Chestnut-headed Oropendola Psarocolius wagleri
1	Thick-billed Euphonia Euphonia laniirostris