Photo: Prairie Warbler, Matt Felperin/Occoquan Bay NWR
When: Monday, April 13, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Where: Online
Fee: FREE, but registration is required
Register for this virtual event hosted by Northern Virginia Bird Alliance, to learn about our upcoming annual Birdathon! We will begin with an introduction to Birdathon and include details on how to form a team, sign up, set up your fundraising page, and track your sightings. We’ll also cover important deadlines, how teams will submit observations through eBird, and tips for making the most of your 2026 Birdathon experience! At the end, we'll host a live Q&A session with NVBA organizers.
All birding levels are welcome!
Participants can bird alone or form teams of up to five. All team members donate and/or secure pledges. Participants can solicit general donations or ask for pledges based on the number of species or the number of individual birds sighted. Sightings are due May 23rd and donations are due no later than May 31, 2026.
What is Birdathon?
Like a walk-a-thon, Birdathon participants collect pledges from friends and family via their team page on our website. Then participants record how many species they can identify during any 24-hour period between April 18 and May 17th 2026.
Last year we had a record-breaking 29 teams and our winning team saw 103 species! Birdathon support Northern Virginia Bird Alliance's outdoor education, citizen science, habitat conservation, programs to encourage people to plant native plants and protect native wildlife, and more! Birdathon also helps ornithologists better understand spring migration by reporting sightings through eBird, an online database of bird observations run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.