Bird-a-thon

Rules – How to Play

It is strongly recommended that all official teams comply with either the Traditional or IBA Bird-a-thon Rules. For teams to be eligible for the Brewster, Forbush, Hatheway or The $ Cup they must follow either the Traditional rules or the IBA rules.

Traditional Rules:

• A team must its Bird-a-thon team participants in advance of Bird-a-thon by the stated deadline.  All team rosters will be checked for duplicates - an individual cannot be on more than one Bird-a-thon Team.

• Each team may have up to 50 birders on the official sanctuary/program team.  Each birding sub-team must include at least two people. No solo birding! Official birders are the only birders whose bird sightings will count toward the winning of the trophies and other prizes.

• MAS Bird-a-thon Checklist is the official Bird-a-thon checklist. Only birds included in this checklist will count towards a team’s total.  Any additional or exceptional bird sightings must be confirmed by the Field Ornithologist in order to be counted. For birds marked with an asterisk on the checklist (see checklist page), teams must submit two names, with phone and email contact info, of people who saw the bird.

All species counted must be recorded during the official 24-hour period of the Mass Audubon Bird-a-thon.

• use of airplanes, helicopters and hang gliders is prohibited.

• Only bird species seen or heard in Massachusetts may be counted.

• To be eligible for any award, each team must submit its final species lists electronically and preliminary estimated fundraising totals by the stated deadline. Then, one week later, each team must submit a final fundraising estimate (this gives you another week after the Bird-a-thon to collect pledges). For the Brewster, Hatheway and Forbush awards, the prizes will be awarded based on the single species list submission.  For the fundraising cups, the decisions will be based on the end-of-May submission. (See Deadlines and Forms.)

Other helpful hints:

• Birding team members are encouraged to remain together as a unit.  While not every species will necessarily be seen by every team member, greater accuracy usually results when team members work together. 

IBA Regional Award Rules

Bird-a-thon teams may choose to concentrate their birding efforts in regions, competing for the IBA award; the birding regions will be defined by the location of Massachusetts Important Bird Areas (IBAs.)

The IBA Regional approach to Bird-a-thon can address past concerns about excessive use of gasoline, travel time, etc. – all legitimate concerns for an organization like Mass Audubon.

The winner of the IBA Regional Award will be the team that records the highest percentage of the Birding Par Value Number for any IBA region (see explanation below).

IBA teams follow all of the traditional Bird-a-thon rules, and in addition:

• Birding teams may only count birds that are seen at IBAs within the pre-determined IBA Region.. IBA region maps:
• Cape Cod and the Islands IBA Region
• South Shore IBA Region
• Greater Boston IBA Region
• North Shore IBA Region
• Central IBA Region
• Connecticut Valley and Berkshires IBA Region
• Birds recorded by a team competing for the IBA Award may be included on the statewide list for a sanctuary team participating at the statewide level so long as the combined number of birders is 50 or less for the two teams, or an IBA team’s birds can be independent from the sanctuary team – it is your choice.
• A sanctuary’s IBA Team competing for the IBA Regional Award may form a subset of the sanctuary’s statewide team competing in the traditional BAT.
• IBA Team members cannot be on more than one team or record their sightings for more than one sanctuary team.

The Plan:

• All deadlines for submission of team names etc., will apply to IBA Regional teams as well.
• The state has been divided into 6 distinct geographic regions, defined by the IBAs within the region.
• Each region is assigned a “Birding Par Number.” The Par number is an estimate (an approximation) of the possible species diversity of the Region during the Bird-a-thon. 
• The “Birding Par Number” for each IBA region is as follows:
• Cape Cod and the Islands IBA Region = 165
• South Shore IBA Region = 170
• Greater Boston IBA Region = 175
• North Shore IBA Region = 185
• Central IBA Region = 154
• Connecticut Valley and Berkshires IBA Region = 154

• The goal is to record as high a percentage of the Birding Par Number for an IBA Region as possible.
• BAT teams may select any IBA Region that they wish to cover during the BAT.

Think about it:

• Each IBA Region will include all the IBA sites in the region.  Birding teams competing for the IBA Regional Award will have a number of good birding localities in whatever region they select.
•  The IBA Regional approach can increase local interest in both the Bird-a-thon and the IBA Program.