Tamara Catalán Bermudez, September eBirder of the Month

Please join us in congratulating Tamara Catalán Bermudez of Chaitén, Chile—winner of the September 2023 eBird Challenge, sponsored by ZEISS. Tamara’s name was drawn randomly from the 310 eBirders who submitted at least 20 checklists in September each containing one or more rated sound recordings. Tamara will receive a new ZEISS SFL 8×40 binocular for her eBirding efforts. Thank you to everyone who participated in the September eBirder Challenge, we are grateful for your support and continued dedication to data collection and conservation. Here’s Tamara’s birding story:

I have more than a 750-day checklist streak, do the eBirder of the Month challenges, and never imagined that I’d have the honor of being selected as eBirder of the Month living so far south in the world!

I’ve always enjoyed nature. My first approach to birdwatching was in 2015, when I moved with Freddy Sepúlveda, my partner, to Chaitén, the start of Chilean Patagonia. In the evergreen forest I learned to listen and observe birds with patience, but above all, to enjoy those moments that cannot always be captured.

Black-throated Huet-huet © Tamara Catalán Bermudez / Macaulay Library

I started observing birds through photography. On one of our walks along the banks of the Blanco River, an urban sector in Chaitén that was formed by the sediment from the eruption of the Chaitén Volcano in 2008, Freddy and I found a Two-banded Plover chick (Charadrius falklandicus), a species with no record of nesting in the Los Lagos region and no existing photographs or data in the province of Palena. The need to document that moment and keep track of the process led me down a path of no return using eBird as my roadmap. That discovery was also my first scientific dissemination publication in La Chiricoca (a Chilean Magazine).

Two-banded Plover© Tamara Catalán Bermudez / Macaulay Library

I joined ROC (Red de Observadores de Aves y Vida Silvestre de Chile) trying to support each project that we develop in Los Lagos region, following the path of my idol in ornithology, Rodrigo Barros. I’m contributing to the research of the Pincoya Storm-Petrel (Oceanites pincoyae) and I’ve been able to rescue more than four individuals in the 2022-2023 seasons that are attracted to light pollution. While documenting one of these rescues I managed to record the first audio recording of the vocalization of this species.

I’m also a Mentor for eBird Chile and through mentoring we try to help birdwatchers to record information and clarify questions about the use of the platform. I believe that my story highlights the need to upload data from all corners of the planet to nourish the products that are generated with this information.

Ringed Kingfisher © Tamara Catalán Bermudez / Macaulay Library