🦜 Birdwatching takes flight in Brazil

Twice a year, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology holds what it calls Global Big Day, an international event to promote citizen science and birdwatching. The aim is simple: people around the world count every bird species that they spot in 24 hours, logging their checklist on Cornell’s eBird online platform, along with their location.

Global Big Day (and the eBird platform itself) is relatively well-known in the US and Europe, where the hobby of birdwatching is more widespread. In countries like Brazil, however, the idea of leaving one’s house to spot birds has never been particularly popular — despite the eye-watering diversity of avian species on show around the region.

This, however, may be starting to change. Figures from the most recent Global Big Day in October showed a surge of interest in Brazil, with a total of 6,611 checklists submitted — 71% more than the previous year’s edition and fourth in the worldwide ranking.

In terms of the number of species logged, Brazil broke its own record with 1,263 — that’s roughly the same number of species that exist in the United States, spotted in Brazil by amateur birders within the space of 24 hours. Only birdwatchers in Peru (1,344 species) and Colombia (1,386) spotted more…

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