WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — From the Northeast Kingdom to the Massachusetts border, and from the Connecticut River to the waters of Lake Champlain, Vermont’s teaming birding community once again took part in the Vermont e-Bird County Quest in 2024. Marking the 14th year, this event continued to bolster Vermont’s enormous database of bird sightings, all in the spirit of friendly competition.
The annual year-long contest pits county versus county, birder against birder, all engaged in a friendly rivalry for top birding honors. The main idea behind the quest is to get people out birding, promote camaraderie and better document bird life across the state using Vermont eBird.
Lamoille County won the gold medal for the first time in 2024, documenting 178 species of birds and giving them 18.5 birds over par and the victory. Windham County wasn’t far behind taking the silver medal with just a half-bird separating them from gold. With 16 birds above par, Caledonia County birders had a repeat bronze medal. Over the 14 years of the County Quest, Windsor County (home for the Vermont Center for Ecostudies), garnered the most medals with 11. Chittenden County was not far behind with nine medals.
The County winners are based on a carefully calculated “par” system, recognizing that not all Vermont counties are created equal in terms of avian diversity. Par scores reflect the number of species that a given county should find in a year with consistent birding effort. Each year a particular county wins, five birds are added to their par.
In 2024, Chittenden crushed the competition with 245 birds for a second year in a row. The county won gold in 10 of the 14 years of the Quest and holds the annual record with 260 birds in 2021.
Titles for individual county winners are awarded to the birders with the most checklists and bird species for each county. Another award is the County 150 Club, for Vermont eBirders who identified 150 species or more in a county during a calendar year. Seven Vermont eBirders added their names to the honor roll in 2024. The 14th Star Award is a prize for those that have achieved 150 species in all 14 counties in Vermont, the 14th state. Only two Vermont birders have achieved this feat, Pat Pratt in 2019 and Craig Provost in 2020. The Vermont 250 Club is a list of eBirders who’ve found 250 or more bird species in Vermont during one calendar year. To complete this, birders have to find about 90% of the species found in Vermont in any given year. Only 17 birders have been added to this honor roll. Jim Mead has passed 250 species 13 times and the only one to do it in 2024.
Area eBird volunteer experts reviewers include Zac Cota, Lamoille County, Washington County, Franklin County, Grand Isle County; Jeff McQueen, Caledonia County; Bob Stymeist, Orleans County and Craig Provost, Northeast Kingdom counties.
