Records tumble during Global Big Day 2022

An extraordinary 7,682 of the world's bird species were recorded during the Global Big Day event on 14 May.

This sets a new record high for the number of species seen by birders worldwide in a single day, beating the previous best of 7,327 set in May 2021.

Shoebill was among the 7,682 species recorded worldwide on Global Big Day 2022 (Dylan Vasapolli / Birding Ecotours).

Participants from a staggering 201 countries took part in the event, which is co-ordinated by eBird, with almost 52,000 birders submitting checklists on the day.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of birding took place in the US, where close to 70,000 checklists were submitted by participants. In second place was Canada, with 12,920 checklists.

Colombia, which has fully embraced the Global Big Day event in recent years, came out on top in terms of number of species recorded within its boundaries. The 1,538 species seen fought off competition from Peru (1,430) and Ecuador (1,119). Fourth-placed Brazil recorded 1,054 species, with India's 823 earning it fifth spot and equating to 58% of bird species ever recorded in the country.

The full results and further information can be found at ebird.org/globalbigday.