What is a Big Year?
A “Big Year” is a competitive event where people race to see the most species in a specified geographic area in a specific year. The term was coined by competitive birders and gained popular acclaim through the best-selling book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. The Big Year chronicles the biggest year of them all: the North American Big Year, where individuals race to see as many birds as possible within North America. There are many variations on the theme: some alter the time frame (Big Day, Big Month, etc.) while others alter the geographic area (County Big Year, State Big Year, etc.) and some alter both.
A Big Year is a birders term for when you spend an entire year trying to see as many species of North American birds as possible. Throughout the year, you go to as many hot spots where birds are found in migration or in areas of high diversity to build as big a list of observations as possible. You begin on Jan. 1 and end on Dec. 31. The record is 745 species, but very few birders ever get above 600. The rules for a Big Year are simpleall sightings must be of living, wild, unrestrained birds that are identified by voice or visually and that occur in North America, defined as all areas north of Mexico, including Canada, and waters up to 200 miles offshore (Bahamas, Hawaii, and Greenland are excluded). One can read about a Big Year and the top competitive birders involved in one in the recent book The Big Year (2004), by Mark Obmascik (Free Press, NY). This is a well written and fun read and the idea for my Big Year stems from reading this book, with one main difference. I was troubled b
