2024 saw our most extraordinary Big Day yet! It was a phenomenal day of birding, Caribbean commitment to avian conservation, soaring competitive spirit, and boundless potential to make valuable contributions to science and conservation.
On Saturday, May 11, birders in the Caribbean and around the world woke up extra early and excitedly joined forces for Global Big Day (GBD)! Twice a year, during peak migration times (once in spring (May), and once in fall (October)), birders worldwide leap into action and attempt to spot as many different bird species as possible within 24 hours. Besides the pure, adrenaline-pumping thrill of the day, the lists of birds recorded and submitted to eBird from across the globe are immensely valuable for science and conservation!
To say that Big Day numbers were impressive would be conservative—Global Big Day 2024 was a resounding success! 7,725 bird species were recorded by over 63,000 people around the world. A mind-boggling 156,000 checklists were logged by eBirders in 24 hours!
In the West Indies, we proudly broke our previous records for participation and sightings! Big Day birders saw 551 West Indian species, thanks to the amazing efforts of 710 eBird observers—a fantastic increase of 199 observers from 2023! There were more species sighted (1354 total, 208 more than last year) and a huge leap in the number of checklists submitted—2755 total, nearly 1,000 more than last year—phenomenal!!!.
Figure 1: Global Big Day 2020-2024 comparisons showing changes in total number of eBird Observers in the West Indies, total species seen, and total number of eBird checklists submitted.
Welcome to our New eBirders and GBD Teams!
This year, many Caribbean islands saw an increase in the number of people taking part in Global Big Day. In fact, the number of eBirders in 2024 grew by more than 100% from 2023 in some countries! Special mention goes to Puerto Rico, who added 37 more eBirders in 2024, increasing participation by over 119%. What a great achievement! New recruits to the growing “army” of eBirders are always welcome, helping to boost birding records for the region.
Grenada experienced a 56% increase in the number of recorded bird species for Global Big Day, while Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic experienced increases of 28%, 27%, and 24%, respectively.
This year we were also thrilled to welcome more national (island) teams to the competition! We thank the phenomenal team leaders and members of the following teams for joining us and giving the “OG teams” a run for their money (or checklists?): Bahamians, Birds and Botany, Bird Nerds Exuma, BVI Birders, USVI Flock, LGBT (La Gwada Birder Team), Saba Conservation Foundation, Statia’s Golden Warblers, Imperial Seekers, Whistling Warblers, and Econetics.
Our ultimate goal is to have a team representing each island in the Caribbean. We know we have the best birds and birders who always bring BIG energy, passion, and pride to conserving birds. If you would like to lead a team on your island for GBD 2025 please get in touch with us by emailing: lisa.sorenson@birdscaribbean.org and christel.mohammed@birdscaribbean.org. It’s not too soon to start plotting for Big Day 2025 domination!
Our Caribbean teams showed up and showed out this year! And in an incredible record-breaking year like this—there’s bound to be some surprising results! So, which longstanding Big Day champions were finally unseated? And which team scored those bragging rights? Who were our birding MVPs (MVBs?) in the Caribbean and beyond?
Colossal country checklists and a new GBD Team champion
We know that the suspense is unbearable! Without further ado, we present the stats from this year’s team competition!
Once again, the multinational “Flying Pintails” led by Executive Director Lisa Sorenson topped the list seeing the most species—703! We might need to change their team name to the “Dominant Ducks!” With team members from a total of 12 countries, their impressive performance is perhaps not surprising. To put it in perspective, this works out to just 58 species per country which is still far less than for some of our national teams’ totals. Perhaps Lisa needs to get her team working harder next year…Or, on second thought, maybe that’s not such a good idea! Coming in second place for total species was another multi-national team, “President’s Perch” with a sizable 512 species, while the Globe-Trotting Todies trotted into third place with a respectable 418.
Figure 2: Global Big Day results for our 27 BirdsCaribbean Teams. The numbers in red show which team had the highest number for each category.
The “Gundlach Team” from Cuba deserves a special mention for their champion work in community mobilization! Congrats to the incredible team leaders of Cuba’s national team for once again getting the most people involved, with a fabulous 86 team members entering their species lists on eBird. Yaroddys (Yaro) Rodriguez and Nils Navarro have set an exceptional example as team leaders, and have landed us once more in the happy position of having to figure out how to get around the limit of how many persons could be added to an eBird Trip Report! The “Gundlach Team” also saw an impressive 182 species. But this was a year unlike any other—and even that magnificent performance was not enough to hold on to their species count winning streak! In a shocking turn of events, for the first time in four years—and since the very inception of our GBD Teams Competition—the seemingly untouchable Cuban dream team has been dethroned as the West Indies species lead! Our 2024 West Indian Species count champions are the venerable “Piping Pawis” from Trinidad, who saw an extraordinary 214 species in the West Indies!
Small teams, Big records
In the ‘species seen’ statistics, large multinational teams like “Flying Pintails” and “President’s Perch” dominated. However, when it came to species seen by each team member, our smaller teams performed exceptionally well. For instance, the two members of “Bird Nerds Exuma” each recorded an impressive average of 24 species. Similarly, the two members of “BVI Birders” and three members of “Imperial Seekers” recorded an average of 19 species each. It’s remarkable what the GBD Teams accomplished in just 24 hours of birding!
Figure 3: The average number of species seen per person for each of the 27 Global Big Day teams. Team Bird Nerds Exuma saw the most birds per team member with an average of 24 species/person.
Hot on the trail of Caribbean icons
The Global Big Day in the Caribbean offers birding teams the chance to discover and document the unique bird species found on the islands. While this can be quite challenging, Caribbean birders enjoy the opportunity to spot the feathered pride and joy of their countries.
The “Bajan Birders & Friends,” “Cayman Birding,” “Grenada Hook-billed Kites,” “Piping Pawis,” “Warbling Warriors,” and “LGBT (La Gwada Birder Team)” successfully found all their endemic birds on Big Day! The “Peeping Cuckoos,” “The Palmchatters,” and “Gundlach Team” all came really close, spotting about 82% of their endemics! Congratulations to all our teams for their outstanding efforts!
Figure 4: Percent of endemics seen (by proportion) on Global Big Day, 2024.
Biggest Big Day team birders
There are teams…and then there are the amazing individual birders.
This year we had some seriously monumental individual efforts. Topping the top team birders list was Marshall IIiff, who was birding in the US and recorded 166 species for the Flying Pintails. Marshall out bird-ed last year’s top birder from Panama—Beny Wilson who recorded 164 species in 2023. Beny didn’t go far in our rankings though, and is now holding on to second place for GBD 2024. Our top birders from the Caribbean and across the globe, respectively, on Big Day were:
Our top ten birders (or birding duos) with the most species in the West Indies were:
125 Jerome Foster – Piping Pawis
112 Mark Hulme and Alex Sansom – Piping Pawis
103 Xavier Ragbir – Piping Pawis
102 Ricel Polán Hernández – Gundlach Team
93 Eric Torres-Rivera – Warbling Warriors
85 Andrea Thomen – The Palmchatters
83 Noelia Nieves – Warbling Warriors
80 Nicolás Díaz Pérez – Gundlach Team
80 Josh Bajnath – Piping Pawis
Our top five birders located anywhere (not necessarily in the Caribbean) on Big Day were:
166 Marshall Iliff – Flying Pintails
144 Beny Wilson – Flying Pintails
134 Karina Anahi Esparza – Globe-Trotting Todies
132 John Garrett – Flying Pintails
125 Jerome Foster – Piping Pawis
Working hard for the endemics
Within the Caribbean, some birders went the extra mile to find the region’s endemic birds. So we want to give a special mention to the following birders who had 20 or more West Indies Endemics on their GBD checklist on May 11th:
Efrain Feliz – 27
Manuel López Salcedo – 26
Yusneyda Alarcón Jorge – 26
Ricel Polán Hernández – 25
Dayron Breto – 24
Nicolás Díaz Pérez – 22
Eric Torres-Rivera (Puerto Rico) – 22
Adriana Hernández Rodríguez – 21
Pedro Genaro Rodríguez – 21
Carlos Arévalo (Cuba) – 21
Andrea Thomen (Dominican Republic) – 21
Wilberto Rodríguez – 20
The biggest winner of all? Caribbean conservation!
In a year of incredible firsts, we are really proud of the epic increase in eBird checklists submitted this Big Day. With nearly 1000 more checklists submitted this year, we can’t help but feel deeply moved by how the dedication to science and conservation of our awesome teams! Thank you, thank you, thank you to our passionate team leaders and members. With you by our side, we will continue to make great strides in protecting birds and their homes, supporting communities, and sustaining future generations of bird advocates to come.
The Sky’s the Limit!
Our Big Day birding teams rallied together to raise funds for travel scholarships, enabling Caribbean nationals to attend our 24th International Conference in the Dominican Republic this July. With the support of 305 wonderful donors (Wow!!), we have exceeded our US$25,000 goal. A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved!
These donations, along with sponsorships and support from other generous funders, have already benefited 44 deserving scholarship recipients. However, there are still many hardworking Caribbean conservationists, especially local applicants in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in need of support to attend the conference. They are eager to improve their conservation aptitude while expanding their professional networks. Therefore, we have raised our goal to $30,000 to ensure these dedicated individuals can join us. Your donation can make a significant difference in the lives of these conservationists. Please consider supporting us here: https://givebutter.com/BCGBD2024
Every single bird recorded during our Global Big Day birding fundraiser counted towards our effort and every birder taking part helped make this year an amazing success! We want to thank everyone who helped us raise funds and donated to help Caribbean nationals attend the BirdsCaribbean 24th International Conference. It’s not too late to contribute to our 2024 fundraiser! Your donation will help us enhance our local partners’ capacity to carry out impactful bird conservation work: https://givebutter.com/BCGBD2024
Please note that the data used here is based on validated eBird records as of May 16th 2024. Sightings under review may not have been included in these totals in some instances. Please see the links below to explore the most up-to-date team trip reports.
2024 BirdsCaribbean Global Big Day Teams
List of teams and links to trip reports pages on eBird:
Badass Bobwhites (multinational)
Far Flung Flock of Friends (multinational)
Flying Pintails (multinational)
Globe-Trotting Todies (multinational)