Whether you are on a team or just watching from home, there are many ways you can join the fun. Check out Birdathon Stories, a special place to post your Birdathon adventures and read about other teams. You can also share your stories through Instagram (#scvas and #scvasbirdathon), Facebook, Twitter and the south-bay-birds mailing list. If you’re looking for past Birdathon champions, check out our new Birdathon “Hall of Fame” page.

Please consider sponsoring one or more of the teams below. Your donations support SCVAS’s work, especially our education programs.

To create a team of your own, please read the event Rules and Guidelines then simply click “Form a Birdathon Team,” fill in the required fields and we’ll get back to you with more information. See all the great trip types below for inspiration. We will follow all restrictions issued by Santa Clara County to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

If you are a team leader or participant and wish to add a photo or fundraising goal you can do so by signing into your account here with the email we communicate to you with.

You can sponsor a team or any individual on a team by clicking on one of the “Sponsor” buttons below. You can join a team by clicking one of the “Request to Join the…” buttons below. The list is in alphabetical order; see the bottom of the page for a list of teams in date order.

Terminology:
Distributed—team members split up into households and bird different areas simultaneously
Distanced—team members bird together, but follow County Guidelines including social distancing
Stationary—like a Big Sit (see Birdathon Rules & Guidelines), but team members are distributed

Have you donated to SCVAS before? Sign into your account here for easy donating, to check your membership, and interact with your own Birdathon fundraising page.

List of teams by date

You can click on each team name to see a full description and join or sponsor your favorites.

• BAYSIDE RAMBLERS: WEDNESDAY, 3/31

• SUBSPECIES: WEDNESDAY, 3/31

• FOOLISH FLAMINGOS: THURSDAY, 4/1

• FARTLEK FALCONS: SATURDAY, 4/3

• PALY WILDLIFE CLUB: SATURDAY, 4/3

• BIRDCASSOS: WEDNESDAY, 4/7

• LONESOME DOVE: WEDNESDAY, 4/7

• SAINT ANTHONY RANCHERS: WEDNESDAY, 4/7

• THE FLYCATCHERS: WEDNESDAY, 4/7

• A BIRDER IN HAND: SATURDAY, 4/10

• LEAN GREEN BIRDING MACHINE: SATURDAY, 4/10

• SPIDERHUNTERS: SUNDAY, 4/11

• DEDUCKTIONS: THURSDAY, 4/15

• PATIENT LISTENING: FRIDAY, 4/16

• THE CALIFORNIA TOWHEES: SUNDAY, 4/18

• ROCK WRENS: SUNDAY, 4/18

• CUPERTINO CREEK CRUISERS: WEDNESDAY, 4/21

• THANK SMEW: WEDNESDAY, 4/21

• ALMADEN EAGLES: THURSDAY, 4/22

• HOT SPOTTERS: THURSDAY, 4/22

• THE PIRATICAL FLYCATCHERS: THURSDAY, 4/22

• VARIED TWITCHERS: SATURDAY, 4/24

• WRONG TERNS: MONDAY, 4/26

• The 5-MILERS: WEDNESDAY, 4/28

• SHUTTERLY FABULOUS: FRIDAY, 4/30

• BOARD NOT BORED: SUNDAY, 5/2

• MASKED CUCKOOS: SUNDAY, 5/2

• LAX RETURNS: WEDNESDAY, 5/5

• LOCAL GLOBAL BIG DAY BIRDERS: SATURDAY, 5/8

• SONG BIRDS: SATURDAY, 5/8

Alphabetical List of Teams

DISTANCED: 4-HOUR
Last year’s winners of our Best Bird category (with a recording of a Cassin’s Kingbird!) is splitting up into a distributed team this year, with Ann Verdi, Kirsten Holmquist, and Janna Pauser each birding a section of the traditional Eagles route in Almaden and the surrounding area.

Team: Ann Verdi, Kirsten Holmquist, Janna Pauser
Date: THURSDAY, April 22

DISTANCED: 4-HOUR
This social-distancing team will be starting in Willow Glen and going within 5 miles of my home including Almaden Lake Park and Guadalupe Oaks Park.

Team Leader: Roberta Baker
Birding Level: Intermediate
Date: SATURDAY, April 10

DISTANCED: 4-HOUR
This social-distancing team will be taking advantage of the wide variety of habitats at Palo Alto Baylands to find as many birds as possible within a 4 hour window.

Team: Eve Meier and Patricia Lynch
Birding Level: Intermediate
Date: WEDNESDAY, March 31

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Join our “sketch-a-thon”! Inspired by the teachings of legendary artist John Muir Laws, and the timid voice we hear whispering, “draw, paint… you can do it.” We will spend our 4-hour time frame drawing the birds around us. As a “distributed team” we will not meet in one location as previously planned, but draw our avian subjects wherever we happen to be—your back yard, your neighborhood, a nearby park, or wherever… So sharpen your pencils and dampen your paintbrushes and get to work. Don’t worry about your technique or whatever the world believes to be talent, just look for birds you want to record and set your pencils and brushes to paper. The goal will be to draw or paint as many birds as possible in the 4-hour window… no experience is necessary and any style portrait will be celebrated. The only caveat is that our portraits must be of subjects we see during the 4-hour window, rendered within that time, and be properly identified. Send Matthew a snapshot of each portrait you create and afterward, all the portraits will be collected and assembled in a pdf booklet for your enjoyment.

Note: Participants are expected to donate or fundraise $50 or more in contributions to participate in this team.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: ALL
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 7; 9:00AM-1:00P

DISTANCED: 4-HOUR
This year we are a distributed team consisting of SCVAS’s Board of Directors and anyone else who’d like to bird on the same day. Unfortunately we cannot bird together this year, but we can combine our checklists and our stories and share in the joy of birding. We expect a mix of beginning to expert birders brought together by our commitment to SCVAS and its mission. Grab your binos and go out birding as we seek out birds both common and cryptic.

Team Leader: Bob Hirt
Birding Level: Variable
Date and Time: SUNDAY, May 2; Time TBA

DISTRIBUTED: 24-HOUR
Discover the joys of birding close to home (within 1 mile) while supporting Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society’s education programs! Join us on April 18th by birding while in your yard, looking out your window, walking around the block, or hanging out at your neighborhood park. Bird solo or with others following current county guidelines. Keep track of all the bird species you see then email us your list/s along with your favorite birding moment of the day (optional) and maybe a photo too, by April 25th. We’ll compile the results and for every species our team observes, our team leader will donate $10 to SCVAS (capped at 100 species).

After joining our team, we will email you a short list of birding resources to help you identify your local birds. And if you’d like, take part in our group text or e-mail thread on the big day! We’ll share fun finds and help each other identify the birds that we’re seeing and hearing.

Note: You may live anywhere to participate in this team. This team is not eligible for prizes. Suggested donation to join the team is $25.

Team Leaders: Eve Meier, Laura Coatney, Julie Amato
Birding Level: Variable
Date: SUNDAY, April 18; All Day

DISTANCED: 4-HOUR
This is our 17th year cruising along Stevens Creek from McClellan Ranch to Stocklmeir Farm and back. All levels of birding skill are welcome. The route is flat. We walk the entire way which is only 1 mile as the crow flies but we wander around on both sides of the creek. At the end of our 4 hours we will rendezvous back at McClellan Ranch. We will see some of our local migrants and breeding birds, over 40 species, and sometimes a welcome rarity. Meet at the McClellan Ranch parking lot in front of the ranch house. Coffee tea and muffins await you!

Team Leader: Deborah Jamison
Birding Level: Variable
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 21; 7:30AM-11:30AM

What’s better than birding on Tax Day, especially when all your contributions are deDUCKtable? Matthew’s county-wide, 24-hour effort is one of the newly formed “distributed teams”. All the birds you record on the event day will count toward the team’s total. Your exact birding destination(s) are up to you, but as part of the the team’s collective effort, we will want participants to be distributed among the east and west hills, the bay front, urban areas and south county. Birding in key habitats and searching for target birds, we expect the group to retrieve at least 120 species. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations.

Note: Participants are expected to donate or fundraise $50 or more in contributions to participate in this team.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: Advanced
Date: THURSDAY, April 15; All day

DISTANCED: 4-HOUR
This fast-paced, foot-based birding trip will tour the trails of Arastradero Preserve and Foothills Park, requiring brisk walking and some very easy jogging interspersed with idle moments to actually look at birds (the classic fast-slow "fartlek" technique of training used by runners), covering 8 1/2 miles. We hope for 50 or more species on this route.

Team Leader: Steve Patt
Birding Level: Beginning
Fitness Level: Intermediate
Date and Time: SATURDAY, April 3; 7:00AM-11:00AM

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Calling everyone who wants to put the FUN in their April Fool's Day birding adventure!! This is a very different sort of photography birdathon, and you do NOT need anything more than your little phone camera on 4/1/21, and a sense of humor! Spend anywhere from 15 minutes to 4 hours, traversing your own neighborhood (or even just your own home!) and taking photos of the ARTIFICIAL representations of birds you find. Pink flamingoes, plastic owls, that finger-painting on the refrigerator that your toddler says is an Ostrich... This is THE MOST ACCESSABLE Birdathon team. Submit your photos to the team leader by 04/02 and this will be the most silly and funny photoset in the Birdathon Stories section. :-D

Team Leader: Ginger Langdon-Lassagne
Date: THURSDAY, April 1; All Day for 4 hours

DISTRIBUTED: 24-HOUR
Matthew’s county-wide, 24-hour effort is one of the newly formed “distributed teams”. All the birds you record on the event day will count toward the team’s total. Your exact birding destination(s) are up to you, but as part of the the team’s collective effort, we will want participants to be distributed among the east and west hills, the bay front, urban areas and south county. Birding in key habitats and searching for target birds, we expect the group to retrieve at least 100 species. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations.

Note: Participants are expected to donate or fundraise $50 or more in contributions to participate in this team.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: Advanced
Date and Time: THURSDAY, April 22; ALL DAY

STATIONARY: 4-HOUR
Well, if you haven’t had a had a chance to join a Birdathon team yet, you might also be one of those people who show up fashionably late to parties... or file your tax returns late. Either way, this is the most casual team you’ll find! Join Matthew Dodder on a relaxed, and very last-minute weekday distributed stationary team effort. Where you relax and count birds is entirely up to you. You could count the birds in your backyard, at your feeder, on your favorite park bench… it’s up to you. Our final count of species will be a total surprise based on where participants choose to kick back and watch. It’s like a big sit, but the chalk circle is wherever you decide! 

Note: Participants are expected to donate or fundraise $50 or more in contributions to participate in this team.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: ALL
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, May 5; 8:00AM-12:00PM

DISTANCED: 4-HOUR CYCLING
Join the team for a leisurely 4-hour ride from the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant to the Shoreline Lake area. The route follows the San Francisco Bay Trail for approximately 7 miles (you do have to ride back to your car at the end!).

Team Leader: Steve Patt
Birding Level: Intermediate
Date and Time: SATURDAY, April 10; 7:15-11:15AM

DISTRIBUTED: 24-HOUR
Join this distributed team simply by going out birding on your own on Cornell’s Global Big Day, Saturday May 8. You’re contributing to Citizen Science and will be part of the biggest Big Day on the planet (they’ve been smashing Big Day records every year). To be part of this team, all you have to do is sign up (use the “Join” button below) go birding on May 8, then submit one or more complete eBird checklists to ebird.org. If you’d like, you can send a writeup of your adventure to our Birdathon Coordinator at scvasbirdathon@gmail.com for inclusion in our Birdathon Stories.

We’ll tally all the species seen and a list of participants and combine your stories and photos into one great writeup to share with everyone.

Team Leader: None, it’s truly distributed
Birding Level: All levels (must be able to submit a checklist to ebird.org)
Date and time: SATURDAY, May 8, all day and night

SELF-GUIDED: 24-HOUR
This is a one day solo big day through the county to see how many birds I can find and how many county lifers I can add to my tick list.
Team: Chuq von Rospach
Date: WEDNESDAY, April 7; All day

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
A socially distanced group of friends with an oddly descriptive team name...

SELF-GUIDED: 4-HOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
The PALY wildlife observation club will go to Shoreline to look for some interesting shorebirds! Anyone from PALY or their families are welcome to join.

Team Leader: Maximilian Rabbitt-Tomita
Birding Level: Intermediate
Date & Time: SATURDAY, April 3; 4:30-7:00PM

SELF-GUIDED: 24-HOUR RECORDING
Mike traipses across Santa Clara County hoping to record as many vocalizing birds as possible. Like a Photo Big Day but with fewer cameras and more microphones. Since this is a Completely Original Idea, it's anybody guess how many species will be observed - 10 or 100 are both reasonable guesses, if a bit extreme - but it's certain to be enjoyable and exhausting (recording gear is heavy).

Team: Mike Ambrose
Birding Level: Advanced
Date: FRIDAY, April 16; All Day

DISTANCED: 24-HOUR
Barry & Ginger Langdon-Lassagne will spend an intense day birding the foothills, baylands and open spaces of Santa Clara County in an attempt to see the most species in a single 24-hour period. This will be their 17th year participating in one form or another: you can read about all of their previous outings at Barry’s Natural History Stories. This team was formerly known as “The Jack Sparrows.”
Team Leader: Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Date and Time: Thursday, April 22; All day and some of the night

DISTANCED: 24-HOUR
We start at Page Mill and I-280 listening for owls, carpool and return there at days end after touring a full Santa Clara Valley loop route. We hope for 140 species for the day and to retain our spot as the top fundraising teams for this event. The Rock Wrens are currently at capacity.
Team Leader: Bob Hirt
Birding Level: Advanced
Date and Time: SUNDAY, April 18; All day

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
This four hour private team has a great track record with birding by ear and snapping photos of their list birds! Led by Jim Liskovec, the Saint Anthony Ranchers typically range through Rancho San Antonio before ending their day at McClellan Ranch, but this year are venturing out into their local neighborhoods and parks as a distributed team.
Team Leader: Jim Liskovec
Date: WEDNESDAY, April 7

DISTRIBUTED: 24-HOUR RECORDING
Sue Pelmulder and Ginger Langdon-Lassagne co-lead this team to collect recordings of as many bird songs, calls, cries, and general carrying-ons as we can in one 24-hour period on May 8th. There will be an optional evening Zoom meeting on Tuesday, April 20th from 7-8:30 pm, where we will share recording techniques, hardware and apps. If you're out birding on May 8th anyway, join our team and capture some recordings. No experience necessary. It's great if you can ID the bird, but you don't need to to participate on this team. We'll help with ID's after. Contact Sue or Ginger for ideas on where to go.

Team Leader: Sue Pelmulder
Date: SATURDAY, May 8; All Day

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Matthew’s county-wide, 4-hour effort is one of the newly formed “distributed teams”. All the birds you record on the event day will count toward the team’s total. Your exact birding destination(s) are up to you, but as part of the the team’s collective effort, we will want participants to be distributed among the east and west hills, the bay front, urban areas, and south county. Birding in key habitats and searching for target birds, we expect the group to retrieve at least 100 species. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations.

Note: Suggested donation to join the team is $25. Additional contributions from your sponsors are welcome.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: Intermediate
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, March 31; 8:00AM-12:00PM

SELF-GUIDED: 24-HOUR
This is a one day chase to capture as many species as possible in camera and see how many new species I can add to my collection within the county.
Team: Chuq von Rospach
Date: WEDNESDAY, April 21; All day

SELF-GUIDED: 4-HOUR
Carter Gasiorowski and his father will do a 4-hour sprint trying to find as many species as possible. Their plan is to work their way through Stevens Creek County Park in the early morning for songbirds, then finish off at Shoreline for waterbirds. This is their first birdathon, so we'll see how it goes!

Team Leader: Carter Gasiorowski
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 7; 7:07-11:07AM

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
The Wrong Terns is made up of the SCVAS Education Committee, Wetlands Discovery Program Docents, and anyone interested in SCVAS’s education efforts. We will be birding in our neighborhoods this year (and continuing the new trend of not getting lost) and practicing social distancing. Members will send in their lists from their feeders and favorite hotspots in order to compile a shared list. We encourage participants to send in pictures and stories from their isolation birding, and hope to be able to meet again soon!
Team Leader: Carolyn Knight
Birding Level: Variable
Date: MONDAY, April 26; 8:00AM-12:00PM

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Join Matthew Dodder on a 4-hour distributed effort with the 5-mile radius surrounding McClellan Ranch Preserve in Cupertino. This local-is-best concept reduces our carbon footprint considerably and allows for more prolonged enjoyment of the birds we find. Participants will select our destinations from a good list that includes Rancho San Antonio, Heaven’s Gate, Stevens Creek Park, and Picchetti Ranch OSP. We will not attempt to find each other or meet up after the tour as originally planned. Participants are merely assigned to one or two locations within the 5-mile radius so we can get the best coverage. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations to ensure best coverage of the circle.

Note: Participants are expected to donate or fundraise $50 or more in contributions to participate in this team.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: ALL
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 28; 8:00AM-12:00PM

SELF-GUIDED: 24-HOUR
The 19th annual effort by the Varied Twitchers! Will Mike Rogers keep his place at the top of the species count this year? Probably!

Team Leader: Mike Rogers
Birding Level: Advanced
Date and Time: SATURDAY, April 24; 3:21AM-8:12PM

Birdathon Team Calendar

View on our Calendar. You can also view completed Birdathon outings.