Year in Review

Back at home I checked my 2023 list totals on a spreadsheet on my laptop. I had missed a few species. My total was 891 species for the USA and Territories, 9 species short of my goal of 900. I noticed that my World life list in eBird had increased by 111 species. Eleven of these I had seen previously but had never been included on any checklist I submitted to eBird before 2023. So 100 species were true life birds for me. I assessed the value added by visiting each of the outlying regions beyond the Lower 48 states (see Table 1). All the regions were valuable. Within the lower 48 states, I visited Texas the most (7 times) followed by Florida (6 times), California (5 times) and Arizona (4 times).

Table 1. Value added (in terms of year birds and life birds) among the outlying regions visited in 2023. 

Region     Birding Days Year-Birds Life-Birds 

Alaska              14                  34            11 

Hawaii             17                  57            17

Puerto Rico     16                  49             11 

Am. Samoa       6                  19             19 

Guam/CNMI     8                 25             16

In the ABA Area competition, I finished in 4th place. I was 18 species behind the leaders (David and Tammy McQuade), and 8 species behind the third place finisher Gino Ellison. I suppose if I refocused the time I spent in the Territories—about 30 days of birding— I might have been able to finish in first place, but that is pure conjecture. Instead I established a new category (USA and Territories) and a record number of species within this category for future competitors to strive for.

How long will my record last? Who knows. Maybe it will be broken in 2024! Maybe it will last for 50 years, long after I am gone. I look forward to seeing it broken.

In the Lower 48 competition I finished in 3rd place, just 7 species behind the McQuades. And in the major region of eBird called AOU region (includes all of North America), I finished in 5th place.  

Looking back, I have lots of wonderful memories from my “Biggest Year.” First there are the birds. My favorite was the Ross’s Gull at Gambell, AK. Then there were the places. I think my favorite is Nome, AK. But a close second is the Kaulana Manu Nature Trail on Hawaii. It was the closest thing to an enchanted forest that I can imagine. And last but not least, the people that I met along the journey. I have many to thank.

There are a few strategic changes that I might recommend to the next Big Year birder. Spend more time in Alaska and more time on the open ocean. I think most of the species that separated me from the McQuades came from those two places. But ultimately I have no real regrets. Leading the group tours during the first half of the year was a great way to share this adventure with friends and helped soften the financial burden of my Biggest Year. Birding every day all year long was living a dream. Perhaps the one regret I had was that I didn’t have time to bird for the sake of birding. I had to constantly move on to chase the next staked-out target (I eventually observed 62 ABA Code 3+ vagrants). I much more enjoy finding birds myself, and sharing my discovery with others. One of my most memorable experiences this past year was in late August when I identified a juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger from Paul Gordy’s fishing boat at Boyd Lake. I shared the rare sighting with the local Northern Colorado birders, many of whom were able to see it. It wasn’t even a year-bird for me.

Over the next few days I will submit my list totals to the Big Year Wikipedia page and to ABA Listing Central for publication. I will subtract 14 species for my official ABA list total. This is because ABA does not recognize some introduced species that I reported to eBird. I put the list of these species in Table 2. Next I will work on uploading photo and audio documentation to my eBird checklists. I photographed about 800 species. Of the species that I didn’t photograph, I audio recorded about 50. Thirty more species were witnessed by my birding companions. Five species remain unwitnessed and undocumented. (Audubon’s Shearwater, Newell’s Shearwater, Black-headed Gull, Blue Bunting and Indian Silverbill) I will eventually publish a compendium of my photographs and audio files so that my record setting Biggest Year is as transparent as possible.

Table 2. List of 14 species observed that are not yet considered countable by the American Birding Association. 

Species                            State/Territory

Red-lored Parrot              CA, TX 

Orange-winged Parrot      FL 

White-fronted Parrot        TX 

Tanimbar Corella             HI 

White-eyed Parakeet        FL 

Blue-crowned Parakeet    FL 

Burrowing Parakeet         CA 

Swinhoe’s White-eye       CA 

Lavender Waxbill             HI 

Gray Gull                         FL 

Cattle Tyrant                    TX 

Budgerigar                       AZ  

Swan Goose                     CA 

Graylag Goose                 CA

Finally, thanks to you, my loyal blog readers. Knowing that folks were following my story was inspiration for me to keep going to the end.