Photo by Heidi Pasch
It has been five years since the New Haven bird club took over the administration of The Big Sit!® from Birdwatchers Digest. The event was started by the New Haven Bird Club in 1992, was soon taken over by Birdwatcher’s Digest, and grew to be the international event that it is today. We have had circles in six different countries. Connecticut always has a strong showing.
This year Zeiss sponsored the Golden Bird Award by donating a pair of Conquest HDX 8x 42 binoculars. The Golden Bird is drawn from all of the bird species reported for the Big Sit!®. Next, the winning circle is drawn from all of the circles that reported the Golden Bird Species.
The Golden Bird this year is the Yellow-throated euphonia (Euphonia hirundinacea). Yellow-throated euphonia – Wikipedia. It is found in southeastern Mexico and throughout Central America with its range stretching from Belize south to western Panama. It inhabits primarily both humid and dry regions where it prefers the forest edge, open woodland, and shaded plantations.
This year the winning circle is The Lost Tinamou, Finca La Gracia’s birding center, Inicio | The Lost Tinamou, located in Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, in the municipality of Escuintla, Guatemala. This sanctuary on land that was previously used for coffee cultivation is today occupied by very humid subtropical (warm) forest. The Finca Gracia sanctuary is a refuge among a sea of intensive cattle ranching, pineapple, rubber, and sugarcane fields. The native flora and fauna have found refuge in this relatively small preserve.
The New Haven Bird Club’s Big Sit! committee is looking forward to some exciting developments for 2025. We are entering into a partnership with World Migratory Bird Day so that The Big Sit!® will be promoted as an activity for their international event. World Migratory Bird Day usually falls on the second Saturday of October. Also, we have heard that eBird has been working on some changes in their data reporting functionality that will make eBird checklists easier to submit and will capture more information. We are also looking forward to a new look on our website that will feature mapping capabilities.
–Craig Repasz