The power of birds is amazing. Their uniqueness, diversity, and wonder have inspired people forever. We are continually humbled at this global passion for birds—a passion that is no-better-represented than on Global Big Day. On 4 May, 32,500 people ventured outside in 171 countries, finding 6,816 species: 2/3rds of the world’s bird species in a single day. This is a new world record for the number of people birding on a single day. Incredibly, 684 of the total species reported were observed by only one eBirder of the day, showing the difference that a single person can make. Whether you submitted one bird or 100, Global Big Day’s success belongs to you. Thank you, and congratulations.

Importantly, this incredibly fun event also provides valuable information to help the birds we all care about. eBirders gathered more than 1.85 million bird sightings on 4 May, which are now freely available to researchers, conservationists, and fellow birders. As a global birding team, together we can gather information on where, when, and how birds make use of the landscape—and use that information to aid conservation and research that can help keep birds in our fields and forests. And the best part? We can all have a blast doing it.

Our favorite part of Global Big Day is the stories: hearing more than 30,000 perspectives on a single day of birding. There are people who have been scouting and planning their route for a year, alongside people for whom this is their first time ever watching birds. There are researchers in Antarctica; local guides in Uganda; birding tourists in China; dedicated bird photographers in Brazil; and community monitors in Mexico. Some people grab 5 minutes of birding between other obligations, and others are awake from midnight to midnight. No matter how you bird, you’re a part of the team. Explore all of Global Big Day’s birds here: https://ebird.org/globalbigday.

For the third year in a row, Colombia led the world in bird species on Global Big Day. The unbelievable efforts of the Colombian birding community found an unfathomable 1,590 species in one country in one day. Absolutely spectacular work—congratulations. Colombia’s Global Big Day reached from local communities all the way to the Colombian Air Force! An incredible national team of more than 2,300 birders submitted 6,400 checklists, a truly amazing one-day snapshot of birds in the world’s most bird-diverse country. A million thanks and congratulations to the partners behind eBird Colombia and Global Big Day Colombia for their massive success again this year. Right on Colombia’s heels was the superb coverage in Peru, where 1,516 species were reported: 26 more than last year, and an incredible achievement that highlights the value of these Andean countries to global biodiversity.

The Cornell Lab’s Team Sapsucker split into three groups, traveling to Florida, Alabama, and Texas to highlight the region’s incredible importance to migrating birds: more than 2.1 billion birds pass through the Gulf Coast each spring. In each state the team chose a single county to cover on 4 May: limiting to one county to minimize the environmental impact of the big day, and also highlighting how learning a local area very well can result in lots of birds. The combined team total was 242 species. Read more about Team Sapsucker’s day here.

There are so many other exciting stories and results from around the world. We know we’ll never be able to do them all justice, but we’ve worked to highlight some below. Thank you for being a part of Global Big Day.

For much of the continental United States, Global Big Day was one of the first days where migrant birds had returned—good timing! A weather system moving through the southeastern US also brought migrant birds to many regions. The final US tally was 715, with the top species totals coming from Texas (400), California (361), and Arizona (287). 19 states submitted over 1,000 eBird checklists on 4 May! US eBirders also documented 584 species with photographs in their eBird checklists, and 190 with audio—quite impressive!

Canadian birding teams found 371 species, with Ontario and British Colombia neck-and-neck for species, with 243 in BC and 239 for Ontario. Edged out slightly by species again, Ontario eBirders more than made up for the difference with an incredible total of 3,552 checklists on the day! Quebec beat out BC for the #2 spot for checklists, with 1,544.