BeKZNs 75th Anniversary Big Year

Rules of the Challenge

The club launched a Birding Big Year to run from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 in celebration of its 75th anniversary as a bird club in South Africa. This is a PRIVATE club challenge so you will only be able to join if you fill in the form so I have the information necessary to add you.

Rules of the challenge are below and the challenges have been set up on BirdLasser – if you wish to join the challenge use this link – https://forms.gle/yUBjhth9Z1NPyAJd6

Aim of the Challenge

  • Log birds in four challenge boundaries – 
    • eThekwini, 
    • KZN, 
    • South Africa and the 
    • World (ALL four challenges have been raised on BirdLasser)
  • To raise awareness of the wonderful bird diversity in our four challenge areas (we basically cover everything)
  • To help members learn alien versus indigenous birds, how to atlas, how to checklist
  • Participation can come from all ages
  • Who knows what we might find?
  • To collect a large volume of bird data for both eThekwini Municipality and KZN in particular which will be of significant interest to the conservation authorities and researchers.
  • To have fun with competition amongst club members.

The following rules will apply to the challenge:

  • All wild birds that are considered tickable for the Southern African bird list are eligible to be listed. The birds can be ticked based on sight or sound, provided you are 100% certain of your identification.
  • The bird must have been alive, wild, and unrestrained when encountered.
  • Big Year shall start at 12:00 AM on 1 January of that year and end at 11:59 PM, 31 December of that year, based on the local time of the location of the birder at each time threshold.All birds that are seen or heard whilst you are standing (or floating) within the boundaries of the challenge area will be eligible.
  • Birds must be logged in situ and in real time as much as is possible. There should be no backdating of logged bird species.
  • You must adhere to all the relevant ethical standards required of birders when it comes to private and public land access.
  • The sharing of sightings and gen is to be encouraged and applauded. The challenge hopes to bring together birders from all walks of life to enjoy a shared passion.
  • You MAY NOT use playback from a smartphone or any other sound device to elicit a response from a bird to tick it.