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Smithsonian Birders to Play in the World Series
by Russell Greenberg
gray-cheeked thrush
A gray-cheeked thrush. (Gerhard Hofmann)

The World Series of Birding, that is. On May 13, 2006, a team of ornithologists from the Smithsonian Institution, armed with their vast knowledge of birds, will compete for the highly vaunted Urner-Stone Cup. It is the birding world's equivalent of baseball's World Series Trophy or football's Lombardi Cup, and to win it, the team will have to record more bird species within the state of New Jersey than any other team, in just one day. Despite strong competition from teams representing other birding powerhouses in the U.S., including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the New Jersey Audubon Society, members of the Smithsonian Ornithology team are heading up to the Garden State with victory on their minds.

This is more than mere sport, and the goal isn't winning fat contract offers next season for the team's star players. Apart from the thrill of victory, winning isn't about personal gain. Rather, it's about raising much-needed funds to support the mission of Smithsonian ornithologists: to train the next generation of scientists to study and protect birds throughout the world.

Like any great sporting event, the World Series of Birding attracts media, corporate sponsors, and product endorsements, in this case for the latest in binoculars, scopes, field guides, and birding paraphernalia. But at this event, the hype is for the greater good. The World Series of Birding is a great opportunity to focus public attention on environmental issues affecting local and national birds. Furthermore, over the last 20 years, this event has raised millions of dollars for the conservation of birds and their habitats.

"Big Days"—when birders gather to list as many species as possible in a particular location—are traditions that occur around the globe. But the World Series of Birding, now in its 22nd year, is the Big Day. This is when and where birders really show their stuff.

The Big Day begins at midnight and teams bird nonstop for the next 24 hours. When they reach the finish line at Cape May at 11:59 p.m., bird lists are reviewed and champions are made. The actual day is exhausting, but it is merely the culmination of an arduous "spring training": months of organization and team selection, weeks of diligent scouting, and days of painstaking planning to develop the perfect route to accumulate the more than 200 species of birds that are recorded by the top teams.

Within the World Series event are several different types of competitions. Some teams opt, for instance, to rack up lists at individual sites or in particular counties. But the crown jewel of the World Series is the grueling state-wide contest, and the Smithsonian team has its eyes on that prize. A typical day begins in the dark of night at the northern end of the state, where our ears will be trained to detect the calls of nocturnal owls such as saw-whet owls (Aegolius acadicus), secretive marsh birds such as American bitterns (Botaurus lentiginosus), and, our heads craned skyward, the faint calls of night-flying migrants such as gray-cheeked thrushes (Catharus minimus). Birding then proceeds nonstop over hundreds of miles, with team members searching for and ticking off birds both common and rare on the road to Cape May.

The Smithsonian team is diligently preparing for the competition, hoping for big rewards, and looking for fans to support their efforts. Most teams have a corporate sponsor; the Smithsonian team's generous sponsor is Bushnell, maker of binoculars, spotting scopes, and other optics. Teams also generate additional pledges from their fan base—and this is how FONZ members and others can help. Fans typically pledge a certain amount for each bird species the team records, and the contributions go toward a conservation effort of the team's choosing. In this case, all funds raised will help Smithsonian ornithologists research birds around the world, to help ensure that birds are there for future Big Days and for our kids and grandkids.

To make a pledge or contribute in other ways to the Smithsonian Ornithology team's quest to win the World Series, please visit the Smithsonian Ornithology website. There you will find out about the work we do to study and protect birds the other 364 days of the year.

—Russell Greenberg is an ornithologist at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and a member of the Smithsonian Ornithology team that will compete at the 2006 World Series of Birding.

ZooGoer 35(2) 2006. Copyright 2006 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.

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