Birdathon
What is Birdathon?
Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, Birdathon is a 24-hour tally of bird species.
Each Spring, teams of PHASers participate in a friendly competition to see which team can identify the most bird species in our region, heading out into meadows, woods, lakes, marshes, towns, roadsides, parks—and just about any other place one could think of—to identify by sight or sound, the birds present at that location. Birdathon is a fundraising event for PHAS, a data-collecting exercise for science, and a tremendous amount social fun. The information we gather is available to us, the public, and scientists to help answer both basic questions about the year-to-year health of bird populations and better understand the more far-reaching effects that climate change may be having on resident or migratory bird species.
Birdathon is May 18
There are three ways to participate in Birdathon:
Join the Local Birders team
Join the Local Birders team for a morning of birding around Clarence Fahnestock State Park and surrounding birding hotspots. Putnam Highlands Audubon Society members will be leading the effort to count as many species as possible! Register here and details will be provided on meeting time and location prior to the event. Join here.
Pledge by total species count
Pledge by species count and bird with your pocketbook, rather than your binoculars. PHAS offers three pledge levels for species counts: 25 cents, 50 cents, and one dollar. Pledge in advance of Birdathon, then we’ll get in touch after and let you know how many birds your team counted to calculate your total gift. (For reference, in a typical year no team will count more than 150 species.) Email us at phas@putnamhighlandsaudubon.org to make your pledge.
Donate to Birdathon
Want to support Birdathon but not ready to pledge for each species spotted? Make a gift instead! Donate here.
Donate to Birdathon:
Images by Steve Rappaport (top-left to bottom-right): American Robin, Eurasian Collared Dove, American Bluebird, Mute Swan, Great Blue Heron, Short-eared Owl, Bald Eagle, Black-and-white Warbler.