December 26, 2016

Last Birder Standing

Inspired by the global eBird 2017 checklist-a-day challenge, we thought it would be fun to run a small, informal and purely friendly Last Birder Standing contest. Very simply, starting 1 Jan 2017, create at least one ‘complete’ birdlist every day, for as many days as you can manage. More details below.

  • The challenge: look for birds every day, from 1 Jan 2017. Do this for an unbroken stretch of as many days as you can.
  • Following eBird’s checklist-a-day challenge, we’ll set a minimum duration of 3 min for each list. (Why set such a low minimum duration? First, to lower the barrier for participation and ensure that as many people as possible and have as long an unbroken run as possible. Second, short lists are also useful from the data point of view!)
  • Upload your birdlists to eBird. (An easy way for you to keep track of your birding.)
  • The immediate target is to have at least one birdlist for all 365 days of 2017. But we’ll continue the contest unto 2018 and longer (if needed) until only one birder remains standing (ie, has maintained an unbroken daily run of birding).
  • We suspect that despite our best intentions, the main reason to skip a day’s birding (the minimum is only 3 min after all!) will be because we forgot. So the Last Birder Standing will likely be the person who has an effective reminder system — perhaps an daily alarm on your phone, or an automated daily email, or (perhaps most effective) a note written on your mirror!
  • To make it more fun, we ask that you register your name for this contest by dropping a line in the comments section below. Please note that it may take a little while for your comment to be approved and thus show up on the page. Take the daily birding pledge today!

Who has taken the daily birding pledge?

We have created a Facebook group for general encouragement and discussion about Last Birder Standing. If you name is listed below and you aren’t yet part of the group, please drop us a line. We realize that not everyone is on Facebook, and our apologies to those below who aren’t, but this was simply the most convenient platform we could think of..

  1. Abhiram Sankar
  2. Abhishek Gulshan
  3. Abhishek Jamalabad
  4. Abhishek Ravindra
  5. Able Lawrence
  6. Aisha Sultana
  7. Ajay Gadikar
  8. Akshay Surendra
  9. AM Aravind
  10. Andrew J. Johnson
  11. Anish Acharya
  12. Anish Aravind
  13. Anuja Mital
  14. Anup Prakash
  15. Aparajita Datta
  16. Aravind Amirtharaj
  17. Arun B
  18. Ashish Chavda
  19. Ashritha Anoop
  20. Ashwin S
  21. Ashwin Viswanathan
  22. Avinash Sharma
  23. Balwant Negi
  24. Bela Arora
  25. Bhakti Salgaonkar
  26. Bhanu Sridharan
  27. Bharati Chaturvedi
  28. Biang Syiem
  29. Biswajit Chakdar
  30. Brodie Talbott
  31. C Sreekumar
  32. Chetan Sharma
  33. Chirag Munje
  34. Chitra Patel
  35. Dayani C.
  36. Deepthi C
  37. Dharmaraj Patil
  38. Dhaval Vargiya
  39. Elavarasan M
  40. Ezra Rynjah
  41. Ganesh Shama
  42. Ganeshwar S V
  43. Garima Bhatia
  44. Gauri A. Achari
  45. Gnaneswar
  46. Govind Girija
  47. Hakimuddin F Saify
  48. Harshavardhan jamakhandi
  49. Harshjeet Singh Bal
  50. Hemanth Byatroy
  51. Indira S
  52. Jagadeesan Krishnan
  53. Jai Govind
  54. Jaichand Johnson
  55. Javed Ahmed
  56. Jaya Rakesh
  57. Jayadev Menon
  58. Jayu Munje
  59. Jessica Luis
  60. Joy
  61. Kadambari Devarajan
  62. Kalidass Shanmugam
  63. Kalyan Varma
  64. Kedar Champhekar
  65. Ketaki Karandikar
  66. Kiran Bagade
  67. Komal Agrawal
  68. Krishna Moorthy
  69. Krishna Murthy
  70. Kulbhushansingh
  71. Lakshmikant Rajaram Neve
  72. Lakshminarasimha R
  73. Laura Mahrt
  74. M Divin Murukesh
  75. Madhusudhan Srinivasan
  76. Malyasri Bhattacharya
  77. Mamta Parmar
  78. Manan Singh Mahadev
  79. Mandar Bhagat
  80. Marvelyn Dias
  81. Mittal Gala
  82. Mohandas Giriyappa
  83. Monica Kaushik
  84. Mridul Anand
  85. Mrinmayee Thakur
  86. Murugesh Natesan
  87. Namassivayan Lakshmanan
  88. Neeraj Amarnani
  89. Niranjan A
  90. Omkar Dharwadkar
  91. P Jeganathan
  92. Panchami Manoo Ukil
  93. Pankaj Gupta
  94. Parvaiz Shagoo
  95. Pawan Dhall
  96. Pooja Pawar
  97. Pooja Pillai
  98. Pradeep
  99. Prasad Nataraj
  100. Prashant Kumar
  101. Prashant Mahajan
  102. Prashanth NS
  103. Praveen J
  104. Prithiviraj S
  105. Priya Tamma
  106. Pronoy Baidya
  107. Raja Bandi
  108. Rajashree Khalap
  109. Rajiv D’Silva
  110. Rajneesh
  111. Raman Kumar
  112. Ranjini Murali
  113. Ramit Singal
  114. Rohan Chakravarty
  115. Rohit Chakravarty
  116. Rohit Naniwadekar
  117. Rohit Pansare
  118. Ronit Dutta
  119. Rudraksha Chodankar
  120. S. Anand
  121. Saba Sharma
  122. Sahana M
  123. Sangita S. Mani
  124. Sarbjit Singh
  125. Selvaganesh K
  126. Shailee Shah
  127. Sherjin Joel
  128. Shraddha
  129. Shreya Dasgupta
  130. Shiwalee Samant
  131. Sneha Dharwadkar
  132. Sneha Gupta
  133. Somraj Gupta
  134. Subha Choudary
  135. Suhel Quader
  136. Sujata Phadke
  137. Sumit Bhale
  138. Suguna R.
  139. Surendhar Boobalan
  140. Sushil Khekare
  141. Sutirtha Lahiri
  142. Swati Sidhu
  143. Swetashree Purohit
  144. T R Shankar Raman
  145. Tshering Tobgay
  146. Vaidehi Gunjal
  147. Varun Kher
  148. Vena Kapoor
  149. Vidhya Sundar
  150. Vijayalakshmi
  151. Vikas
  152. Vikrant Choursiya
  153. Vinay Bharadwaj
  154. Vinay Mishra
  155. Vinay Nadig
  156. Vinod
  157. Vrinda Lath
  158. Wes Rajaleelan
  159. Yogesh Parashar

Postscript

By coincidence, an article has just been published (31 Dec) on the American Birding Association blog, by Ted Floyd, who has completed 10 full years of daily birding!

I suspect my daily bird logging, more than anything else, kept me going. It kept me focused; it kept me disciplined; it prevented me from getting distracted. Anyhow, I was hooked. There was to be no turning back. In the decades ahead, I would keep on birding, keep on learning about bird biology and identification.


 

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P Jeganathan
7 years ago

“…..until only one birder remains standing” or two birders sitting (as shown in the photo)…;)

I am in…:)

Parvaiz shagoo
Parvaiz shagoo
7 years ago

Will try

Prashant Kumar
Prashant Kumar
7 years ago

I am definitely in…

kiran bagade
kiran bagade
7 years ago

im in

Garima Bhatia
7 years ago

Count me in đŸ™‚

Ganeshwar SV
Ganeshwar SV
7 years ago

Let the fun begin! I’m in đŸ™‚

C Sreekumar
C Sreekumar
7 years ago
Reply to  Ganeshwar SV

I bet you are!! Sree

Ajay Gadikar
Ajay Gadikar
7 years ago

Lovely friendly contest. I am in with a promise to stay long. Thanks

Sutirtha Lahiri
7 years ago

Count me in. Sounds fun!

Suhel Quader
Suhel Quader
7 years ago

I’m going to try my best, setting multiple daily reminders, as I’m sure forgetfulness will be my downfall..

Anish
Anish
7 years ago

I’m in

T R Shankar Raman
7 years ago

Okay… I’m in, too!

Ashwin S
Ashwin S
7 years ago

This sounds fun. Count me in.

Somraj Gupta
Somraj Gupta
7 years ago

Will try.

Mridul
Mridul
7 years ago

Will try my best.

M Divin Murukesh
M Divin Murukesh
7 years ago

I am in..Please add my name

Sneha Gupta
Sneha Gupta
7 years ago

Sounds interesting! Count me in.

Lakshmikant Rajaram Neve

At last…You done it.HaHaHa….I am definitely take part Now.Above photographs also define this challenge.Every birder see behind who remain last?Now it’s time to inspire Global eBird….मान गये भाई!!!

Rajneesh
7 years ago

Interesting and willing
but terrified of what it would do to “my checklists” page.

eBird should give an option to ‘collapse’ lists by location or trip, browsing it now is such a pain

Bird Count India
Bird Count India
7 years ago
Reply to  Rajneesh

You’re right that the “my checklists” page is very hard to navigate. We are working on an app (separate from eBird) where you can upload your eBird downloaded data and explore in more ways that currently available.

Lakshmikant Rajaram Neve
Reply to  Rajneesh

True.

krishna
krishna
7 years ago

Great! I’m in for this

Ashwin Viswanathan
7 years ago

Ok sure!

Biswajit Chakdar
Biswajit Chakdar
7 years ago

I will try my best..

Vidhya Sundar
Vidhya Sundar
7 years ago

Why not try when the minimum is set to 3 minutes

Kulbhushansingh
7 years ago

I am in. What if the list is from outside India?

Bird Count India
Bird Count India
7 years ago

Doesn’t matter where the birdlist is from. Main thing is to bird every day!

Rohan Chakravarty
Rohan Chakravarty
7 years ago

I’m in, fellow birders! Be there or be square! đŸ˜€

Bird Count India
Bird Count India
7 years ago

Would you consider spreading the word on social media? Celebrity endorsement would work wonders!

Sherjin Joel
Sherjin Joel
7 years ago

I am in for sure

Dhaval Vargiya
7 years ago

I m in

Kedar Champhekar
Kedar Champhekar
7 years ago

Going for it!

Jaya rakesh
Jaya rakesh
7 years ago

Challenge accepted…

Prasad Nataraj
7 years ago

Count me in!

Arun B
7 years ago

I am in

Hemanth Byatroy
Hemanth Byatroy
7 years ago

I’m in too đŸ™‚

Yogesh Parashar
Yogesh Parashar
7 years ago

Will give it a go

Shraddha
Shraddha
7 years ago

I want to try defiantly

Harshavardhan jamakhandi
Harshavardhan jamakhandi
7 years ago

Me in …Indeeed B-)

Omkar Dharwadkar
Omkar Dharwadkar
7 years ago

I’m in…

Praveen J
7 years ago

Am in too…the last man’s battle is going to be interesting.

Raman Kumar
Raman Kumar
7 years ago

I’ll try too! I have a manual winding watch as a daily reminder đŸ™‚

bluejay
bluejay
7 years ago
Reply to  Raman Kumar

Only you could have this as a reminder đŸ™‚

Aravind Amirtharaj
Aravind Amirtharaj
7 years ago

I’ll try my level best…. count me in. đŸ™‚

Aparajita Datta
Aparajita Datta
7 years ago

I am in.

Lakshminarasimha R
Lakshminarasimha R
7 years ago

I am in..

Monica
Monica
7 years ago

I am in too. ☺

Rajashree Khalap
Rajashree Khalap
7 years ago

I’m in

Nitya Aggarwal
Nitya Aggarwal
7 years ago

Very interesting…i m in…

Laura
Laura
7 years ago

challenge accepted!

Pradeep
Pradeep
7 years ago

I am in but I will try my best to win.

Niranjan.A
Niranjan.A
7 years ago

I am in . Would be fun if birdcount india releases the remaining people’s list weekly as time progresses .

Thank You

Chetan Sharma
Chetan Sharma
7 years ago

I am in too….

Saba sharma
Saba sharma
7 years ago

I’m in!

Saba sharmasaba
Saba sharmasaba
7 years ago

Please help delete my email id in the earlier post. It appeared by mistake

Bird Count India
Bird Count India
7 years ago

Deleted!

P Jeganathan
7 years ago

Should this be just 3 mins list? It can be even 15 mins lists right?

Bird Count India
Bird Count India
7 years ago
Reply to  P Jeganathan

Certainly.

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