eBird passes the 100 million mark!

For a few weeks now we’ve been looking forward to a major milestone in our eBird project: the addition of our 100 millionth bird observation.

It couldn’t have arrived in better style: Liron Gertsman, a keen young birder from Vancouver, British Columbia, reported an American Robin along with 23 other species as part of his standard bird watching routine. That’s exactly how we want people to be using eBird—to keep records of everyday sightings. In addition to maintaining a complete history of your own personal birding journey, those records combine to provide a comprehensive picture of birds across the continent, and ultimately the world.

To celebrate the achievement, the eight members of the eBird team are assembling a prize package of specially chosen gifts to send to Liron. They’ve also selected one eBirder at random to receive a prize package, and that award goes to Wisconsin birder Chuck Heikkinen (whose winning checklist included Whooping Cranes, Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and more).

Congratulations Liron and Chuck! And thanks to everyone who submits observations to eBird. Because of your efforts, we are building one of the largest environmental databases in existence. Read more about both winners (and their prizes!) on the eBird site.