Please join us in congratulating Vitus Li, of Ellicott City, Maryland—winner of the February 2025 eBirder of the Month Challenge, sponsored by ZEISS. Vitus’s name was drawn randomly from the thousands of eBirders who submitted 31 or more complete checklists during February that include counts for every species reported. Vitus will receive a new ZEISS binocular for his eBirding efforts. Lastly, thank you to everyone who participated in the February eBirder Challenge, we are grateful for your support and continued dedication to data collection and conservation.
This story from Vitus is shared with permission of his parents; a reminder to other young birders to please make sure you have your parents’ permission to submit to eBird and to please check our Terms of Use.
Here is Vitus’s birding story:
I first began birding when I was young, when during the pandemic my parents decided to buy a birdfeeder. The identification of the birds on the feeder and around it interested me, and eventually the interest expanded to all birds. I started using eBird later. Although I was not an active user, I did submit a few checklists. When I started submitting more checklists and started a checklist streak, I began spending more effort on birding and as a result, I met other birders who helped me in my birding journey. I joined the YMOS (Youth Maryland Ornithological Society), led by George Radcliffe, where I developed my birding and began using eBird as extensively as I do right now. Birding with the YMOS has led me to birding friends, who I enjoy birding my county with. The YMOS has also given me the opportunity to participate in the World Series of Birding. Now that I have started birding more, I have relied more on eBird to find what other birders are seeing and to report my own sightings.
As a younger birder I have not experienced the era when birding was primarily recorded on paper and in the notebook, and I am glad that I have been able to use a tool to log my own sightings, see the sightings of others, and contribute to citizen science. Of all the citizen scientist projects, eBird has been the most helpful to me by far. In 2024 I bought a camera setup, and I have also acquired an interest in photography. I now regularly use eBird to record the birds I have seen whether in my yard, my county, or even in another state or country. The more I have used eBird, the more I have been able to connect with other eBird users and the birding community, and I would like to thank the Cornell Lab, the eBird team, and ZEISS for the prize that I have been awarded.