Photo: Prairie Warbler, Matt Felperin/Occoquan Bay NWR

When: Monday, April 20, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Where: Online 
Fee: FREE, but registration is required

Register for this virtual event to learn about 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.

Registration and attendance for this event are NOT required to participate in Birdathon! This session is simply informational and meant to help answer any questions you might have and give you a leg up in setting up your team and fundraising page. A recording will be sent to all registrants and will also be made available on our website!

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.

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 31, 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.