October Big Day 2022: a global birding achievement
On 8 October, people in 185 countries around the world joined together to celebrate birds for October Big Day. More than 34,670 contributors reported an incredible 7,453 species on 80,000 checklists, setting THREE new records for the single biggest day in October birding history!
An extra warm welcome to the 2,800 contributors around the world who eBirded for the first time on October Big Day. This year’s global team featured an astounding 2,000 more participants than last year, including 600 participants in Africa, 2,160 in Asia, 2,960 in Europe, and 5,460 in Central and South America.
October Big Day wouldn’t be a global phenomenon without YOU, the global birding community. We’re grateful to work with so many amazing partner groups around the world, including the eBird portal collaborator network, who inspire and motivate birders on October Big Day and every day. Huge thanks also to Carl Zeiss Sports Optics for their sponsorship of eBirder of the Month challenge, including an opportunity to win new Zeiss SFL binoculars by participating in October Big Day.
This year’s October Big Day was also an opportunity to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day and Global Bird Weekend. Tremendous thanks to Global Birding’s Tim Appleton and Penny Robinson, Birdlife International, and Swarovski Optik for making Global Bird Weekend possible, and to the World Migratory Bird Day team for their efforts.
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October Big Day by the numbers
- 34,670 people went birding
- 80,035 checklists submitted
- 7,453 species reported (184 more species than last year)
- 45,356 photos submitted to the Macaulay Library
- 1,563 recordings submitted to the Macaulay Library
- 184,900 Merlin users saved nearly 28,300 bird identifications
Explore more October Big Day results and mark your calendars for the next Global Big Day—13 May, 2023.
October Big Day 2022 in Central America
eBirders from Clan Thamnophilus in Nicaragua on October Big Day 2022. Photo © Ariel Salinas.
In Central America, 1,473 eBirders reported 964 species on 6,245 complete checklists. Not a record, but still an impressive single day effort! And one Central American country keeps amazing—and that is Nicaragua! Since the very first October Big Day in 2018, each year Nicaragua has submitted more checklists than the year before. The above table shows a 50% increase in checklists from Nicaragua compared to last year, but the increase in complete checklists is even more impressive—from 419 complete checklists in OBD2021 to 669 complete checklists in OBD2022, a 60% increase! While all checklists are valuable, complete checklists are the most valuable contribution to conservation and science, and it is truly inspiring to see not only participation increase in Nicaragua, but quality as well. Well done!
To close out, we’d like to share some pictorial highlights from October Big Day 2022 from across the region:
Thank you making October Big Day a success—and please join us again for the next Global Big Day on 13 May 2023!