Once again, Peruvian bird-watching teams (including our own) placed very well during the 2017 Global Big Day that took place on May 13, observing the second-highest number of birds in the world, with 1,338 total species overall. This was just shy of Colombia’s 1,486 bird species but still beat last year’s Peru record of 1,177.

A remarkable 2,797 species were seen throughout South America with Ecuador and Brazil also strong contributors. In Peru, the two departments with more bird species recorded were, just like last year, Madre de Dios (568 species) and Cusco (532 species), the two regions where Amazon Conservation focuses its conservation efforts. Naturalist guides Pepe Rojas, Percy Avendaño, and Jose Avendaño counted birds at our Los Amigos, Manu, and Wayqecha Biological Stations, respectively, and recorded the following species counts:

Los Amigos: 215 bird species
Manu: 200 bird species
Wayqecha: 115 bird species

The Global Big Day is a friendly birding competition where participants register any location around the world, then observe and count the number of birds they see in one 24-hr period and report the results to eBird. The Big Day is hosted by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is a way to “bring global birders together to answer a single question: how many birds can be seen all over the world in a single day?” This year, more than 20,000 birders from 150 countries around the world contributed more than 50,000 eBird checklists containing 6,564 species. That means more than 60% of the world’s bird species were observed in one day!

We think this is a wonderful way to document and celebrate the remarkable birdlife around the world, and at our stations. We hope you’ll join us at one of our stations for a future count!

You, too, can see this incredible abundance of birds in Peru! Make your travel plans at birding.amazonconservation.org.