The Big Atlas Weekend is back!
This exciting annual event is a fun way for birders to document breeding birds and come together as a birding community. For many birds in our area, breeding peaks in late June. It’s a great time to confirm breeding and fill gaps in the atlas datasets.
This year’s event is being coordinated by New York, Maryland and DC, Newfoundland, North Carolina, Ontario, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
All you have to do is go atlasing between 6:00 pm Friday, June 28 and 11:59 pm Sunday, June 30 and submit your checklist through the NY Breeding Bird Atlas portal in eBird.
Atlas Essentials
CHALLENGES
Each project will randomly select an atlaser from each of the categories below. Winners of each atlasing challenge will get a free course of their choosing from Cornell’s Bird Academy. Plus, just for participating, you’ll get a coupon for $20 off any Bird Academy course!
- Nocturnal checklists (submitted between 20 minutes after sunset and 40 minutes before sunrise)
- Newly coded or upgraded species in a block
- Checklists with breeding codes from an incomplete block
- Atlas-related photos tagged on Facebook (@nybba3), Instagram (@nybbaiii), or Twitter (@nybbaiii). Social media posts must be public.
Eligible checklists must be complete and submitted to the appropriate atlas portal between 6 PM June 28 and 11:59 PM June 30 (Eastern Time).
SCHEDULE
Buy a commemorative Big Atlas Weekend t-shirt on TeePublic!
- June 26: Kickoff with fun talk
- 6-8 pm (Eastern Time)
- Registration: coming soon
- June 28-30: Competition
- Friday 6 PM – Sunday 11:59 PM (Eastern Time)
- June 23-25: Local Events
- Coming soon
- July 3: Awards Ceremony
- 6-8 pm (Eastern Time)
- Registration: coming soon
INTER-ATLAS COMPETITION
The Big Atlas Weekend trophy!
To make this event even more exciting, the six participating atlas projects are all engaging in a (mostly) friendly competition. The winning project will receive the Big Atlas Weekend trophy and have their name engraved on it. Maine won the past two years—but the Maine Bird Atlas is now finished! Who will take the trophy home in 2024??
The winning region will be selected using their standardized rank in the three data challenges (nocturnal checklists, newly coded or upgraded species, and checklists from incomplete blocks). The region with the highest cumulative rank will become the overall winning region of the Big Atlas Weekend—and recipient of the trophy!
FAQs
- What is the Atlas portal? The portal is a label for your checklist so that we know you were atlasing and following project guidelines. You can change your portal in the eBird app’s Settings. Learn more in the Atlasing Essentials.
- What is a complete checklist? A complete checklist means you made an effort to find and record all the birds around you to the best of your ability. Read a more comprehensive explanation here.
- What is an incomplete block? Each atlas block has a set of completion targets they must meet by the end of the project in 2024. Incomplete blocks have not met these targets yet and require more atlasing. You can view a map of incomplete blocks on the Final Year Block Tool. Learn how to tell if a block is complete.
- Is there a way to know if a checklist is nocturnal? A checklist that fits eBird’s nocturnal criteria will have a label next to the date that says “Nocturnal.”
- What is an upgraded species? Each block has a list of birds with breeding codes and these codes are grouped into three categories: Possible, Probable, and Confirmed. When you apply a breeding code in a higher category than the bird’s current breeding code in that block, you “upgrade” that species. For example, if a Brown Thrasher is currently coded as code S (a singing bird), it is in the Possible category. If you find a pair of thrashers in that same block (code P), you have upgraded thrashers to the Probable category. If someone else finds a thrasher nest in that block (code ON), they can then upgrade thrashers to Confirmed. Read more about breeding codes here.
- How can I figure out where to go atlasing? To see where your atlasing effort will be most valuable and to find useful information about each block, use the Final Year Block Tool.
- Who can I contact if I have questions? If you have a question you can’t find the answer to, you can ask your Regional Coordinator.