Rules

The Big Year – Family Style

Prescribed Area: Planet Earth

Prescribed Time: Period 00:01:00am January 1, 2021 through 11:59:59pm December 31, 2021

• A bird seen on a webcam or other remote camera may not be counted
• The bird must have been a member of a species currently listed on the ABA Checklist: https://www.aba.org/aba-checklist/
• The bird must have been alive, wild, and unrestrained when encountered.
• Diagnostic characteristics, sufficient for the recorder to identify it to species, must have been seen and/or heard and/or documented for the bird encountered. “Diagnostic characteristics” means the natural characteristics needed to uniquely determine the species of the bird. It is not necessary to experience every possible diagnostic characteristic, but simply sufficient characteristics to eliminate the possibility of the bird being any other species.
• The bird must have been encountered under conditions that conform to the ABA Code of Birding Ethics version current at the time of the encounter. In any situation for any list, a species may not be counted if the attempts to see or hear the bird are in violation of this ethical Code.