Haikuboxes captured the diversity and abundance of birds by collecting data from 768 locations across North America and Europe. Collectively, they identified 300+ bird species and recorded over 700,000 bird vocalizations. This included over 35 warbler species, seven hummingbird, and 11 hawk species.
There were some changes to the most abundant bird species since Global Big Day in May 2023, with the Blue Jay (almost 75,000 identifications) now coming in first place followed by the House Finch (almost 50,000 identifications), the Northern Cardinal (over 46,000), Anna’s Hummingbird (over 38,000) and American Crow (over 36,000). The House Sparrow was knocked out of first place and off the top five species list, as were the Carolina Wren and American Robin.
Collectively, the top five species made up about 35% of all birds identified by Haikuboxes on October Big Day.
Haikuboxes also identified less common species and regional favorites like 15,000 Chestnut-backed Chickadee identifications at over 100 sites, 250 Rufous Hummingbird identifications at almost 40 sites, and 140 Bald Eagle identifications at 50 sites.
Haikubox owners can download and analyze their own data, turning the Haikubox network into a powerful tool for community science.
An interesting change this year: an annular eclipse could be seen in much of North America on October 14, 2023, with the greatest impact on the western and southwestern United States.
See you next year!