Image for challenge: South Africa Big Year 2025

SPECIES LOCATION

01 January - 31 December, 2025

South Africa Big Year 2025

Log 75 species

01 Jan - 31 Dec, 2025

79 participants

🦅

About

🐦 Log 75 species

Join the South Africa Big Year 2025, enhance your birdwatching skills, and contribute to wildlife research across the country's diverse landscapes. Explore the rich variety of bird species found throughout South Africa's parks and natural reserves. Set your goal to identify and record 75 different bird species by the end of the year and see if you can spot the 2025 Bird of the Year - the beautiful Bateluer!

Terms

This challenge is for anyone with a Birda account. This challenge is for tickable species only. You can read more about tickable species here.

This challenge starts and ends based on the SAST time zone. All individual species logged in South Africa (Inc islands & EEZ) will count towards this challenge and will be included in any leaderboard placement. All sightings must be logged before midnight on the day the challenge ends.

The challage boundary includes South Africa, the Prince Edward Islands as well as South Africa's exclusive economic zone which extends 200 nautical miles from the coast.

Be honest with yourself and other birders, but above all, respectful of them and any other outdoor users, everywhere – especially online. If you didn’t see it (or hear it), please don’t put it on Birda.

Challenge summary

3,064

Sightings

704h 56m

Time in nature

239

Days wild

Leaderboard

# species

🥇

🦅

Ivan P

199

🥈

Neil S

178

🥉

Ashwell B

159

Trevor K

151

🦢

Nicola S

141

Grant J

138

🐧

Phoebe V

137

Maxine J

114

Mika V

111

Kyra V

109

Aart V

Chris W

Most Seen Species

# sightings

Hadada Ibis

Egyptian Goose

Dark-capped Bulbul

Blacksmith Lapwing

Ring-necked Dove

Helmeted Guineafowl

Swallow

Speckled Mousebird

Southern Masked Weaver

Common Myna

Birda is a birdwatching app and community aimed at curious people who want to deepen their connection with nature.

Your birdwatching journey like never before

Connect with nature in minutes

Take a walk, look out of the window and log the birds that you see. Feel good about those little connections to nature.

Discover the joy of birding

Find new birding spots, see more birds, share and celebrate with a like-minded community of nature lovers.

Play your part in saving nature

Logging your birding sightings and sessions turns into positive action for our planet. Every sighting counts.

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What Our Birders Say

Dunners12345

Great App

Great app to use for logging and communicating with others who are interested in birds

Patricia L

Very encouraging birding app

Easy to use, fun to see progress and encouraging to receive feedback from other users.

SuperOliviaGirl

Really great app

It’s easy to use and it’s fun to log the birds you notice on a walk or just in your garden. There’s a option to record the birds you see in a session which is really nice. Good excuse to stop for a while and just watch birds. I am also enjoying the information part where you can find out fact about birds from all over the world.

778

Great bird recording

For a while I’ve been trying to find an app to easily record bird lists and day out and struggled to find one that I like. Birda is great for this, straightforward and a great community!

Safira V

Birding and wellbeing app

Birda is an excellent platform to share your love of Birding and is a great tool of encouragement for a Birding Beginner like me. Birda has a very kind and supportive community of Birding enthusiasts. For me BIRDA is not only a BIRDING but also a WELLBEING App.

Dan R

Great app for bird fanatics

Great app for bird fanatics - very user friendly and a perfect place to share sightings.

Amylia S

Best app for any birding person!

I love this app!! I am so addicted to it when I saw it had 3 star review I was so sad! The app is awesome!! The best app for any birding person! ❤️

Tralisalandhoop

Fantastic app - Love it!

Love this app and have used it almost daily. Lots of species information and easy to use. Love seeing birds spotted by other users in the UK and worldwide.

Ellesse_W

Learning Birding with Birda

I’m relatively new to birding as a hobby, and Birda is a great way to keep track off all the species I see. I’m still working on my ID skills, but the app is great for figuring out potential species, and the online community is so friendly and helpful. Definitely recommend Birda to both early and serious birders! 🐦

Pdydhdrexgi

Fantastic App

This is a really lovely app, for everyone interested in birds - from newbies to old hands. There is a very friendly feel to the community and you will genuinely learn a lot as you record your sightings and photos. There are lots of badges and competitions to keep you engaged, and a host of really useful features.

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