Community & Conservation: Superbowl of Birding 2026
The BU–Harris Center Kestrels compete to advance bird conservation
Competitive sports surround us—between the recent Super Bowl and the Winter Olympic Games, it’s hard to miss them. But you may not have heard of one of birding’s own big contests: the Superbowl of Birding.
That’s right—even birding can take on a competitive twist. As pastimes increasingly intersect with popular culture, more people are discovering this corner of the birding world. Films like The Big Year and Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching, along with countless personal birding stories, have brought competitive birding into the mainstream.
There are many ways to enjoy birding, and competition is just one—but it can be a fun and meaningful way to challenge yourself while supporting conservation. And you don’t have to win it all to ensure victory!
The Superbowl of Birding
The Superbowl of Birding is a friendly annual competition that has run for more than two decades across two adjacent coastal counties—one in Massachusetts, one in New Hampshire. Hosted by Mass Audubon, it was designed to celebrate the region’s winter bird diversity, motivate birders during an under-birded season, and strengthen the birding community’s role in conservation.
In a good year, dozens of teams (four to seven members) will participate across multiple categories designed to appeal to all birding levels and styles. There are prizes awarded in several categories for teams that score the best in the whole area, each county, a single town, and even a single location, and awards are given to participants with the highest tally of ‘lifers.’ Teams get together at Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center to swap stories and share a pizza dinner at the end of a long day in the field.
A New Partnership
For the fourth straight year, the Harris Center for Conservation Education—a regional land trust in southwest New Hampshire—used the Superbowl to support its raptor conservation projects.
This year marked a new chapter: the first time Birding University partnered with the Harris Center for the event. The collaboration was a natural fit: all three primary contributors to Birding University have direct ties to the Harris Center, have been on previous iterations of the Kestrels, and share a commitment to education, birding, and conservation, making joining forces an easy decision.
Competing as the newly branded Birding University–Harris Center Kestrels, the team took the field not just to tally birds, but to raise funds and awareness. While a group of friends from across the Northeast spent a fun winter day together, they were equally motivated to advance ongoing conservation efforts.
Over the years, Harris Center Superbowl efforts have raised thousands of dollars to expand an American Kestrel conservation program that now maintains 50 nest boxes across 20 Monadnock Region towns and to support long-term monitoring of breeding Broad-winged Hawks. This year’s fundraising aims to expand research into rodenticides and lead exposure in kestrels, deploy transmitters to track their movements, and implement new monitoring technologies that bring the science—and the birds—closer to the public.
Competition Meets Conservation
The connection between birding contests and conservation is deep-rooted. Birding competitions date back to the 1800s in Britain and nearly a century in the United States. Early contests focused on identification skills and list-keeping, both long central traditions in birdwatching.
By the 1980s, conservation had become a central goal of big day competitions, in which teams raised funds for conservation. In 1984, New Jersey Audubon, guided by birding legends Pete Dunne and Roger Tory Peterson, founded the World Series of Birding—a 24-hour competition across the Garden State combining birding skill with fundraising. It’s still going strong today and has raised more than $9 million for habitat conservation and public education around birds!
But the World Series of Birding isn’t the only birding tournament on the block. From the Great Texas Birding Classic to the Rhode Island Birding Cup to countless Birdathons, competitions have taken root across the country, many growing out of the same competitive-conservation tradition—including the Superbowl of Birding.
Unlike the World Series of Birding, which takes place each May—months removed from baseball’s actual World Series in October—the Superbowl of Birding embraces its gridiron namesake more literally. Traditionally held the weekend before Super Bowl Sunday, the event’s sports-inspired title reflects not only its competitive spirit, but also its place on the calendar.
Mercifully shorter than the World Series, the 12-hour winter competition still tests gear, stamina, teamwork, planning, and resilience as much as birding skill. A positive attitude and plenty of hand warmers help, too.
Pre-game Warmups
To rank highly in this event requires much more than a proficiency at finding and identifying birds, although those are decidedly key components. Unlike many birding contests, not all species in the Superbowl carry equal weight. Birds are assigned a score of 1 to 5 based on local rarity. For example, a ubiquitous Canada Goose earns one point, while a rare-from-shore Dovekie, a relative of the Atlantic Puffin, earns five, with many species in between.
The result is a strategic game: teams must decide which birds are worth the time and travel, and the most successful squads build their day and route around a carefully chosen target list. Flexibility is just as important as planning—teams have to call audibles as conditions change, chase unexpected opportunities, or pivot when a hoped-for species doesn’t materialize. No two routes are ever the same, even for the same team from year to year.
On the eve of the contest, the five Kestrels gathered over a steaming homemade pot pie—warm, hearty fuel against the cold forecast for the next day. Between bites, they pored over maps, plotting a route that would carry them from first light to the final tally. They reviewed weather forecasts, tide charts, and recent sightings, relying heavily on eBird reports since scouting wasn’t possible. Teammates played to their strengths—some refining the planning template, others studying maps and spreadsheets—all contributing insights shaped by years in the field.
By 3 a.m., as they departed the meeting point, the plan was set, and excitement outweighed the early-morning fatigue.
Ready for Kickoff
The team got on the scoreboard shortly after kickoff, at 5 a.m., with calling Barred Owl and Eastern Screech-Owl. From there, they tracked a series of high-value five-point species: Evening Grosbeak, Rusty Blackbird, Black Vulture, and the morning’s showstopper—a female Painted Bunting visiting an elaborate backyard feeder.
All five-point species must be called in to Superbowl judges, whether on the official competition checklist or as write-ins, even if another team has already reported the species. Teams that fail to call in a five-point bird receive no points. The first team to call in a five-point species earns three bonus points—a field goal, so to speak. This system ensures fairness while keeping strategy central to the day.
The late morning included a series of stops in suburban neighborhoods to target known rarities, most of which were missed during the team’s brief visits. Especially disheartening was the absence of three different previously-reported Baltimore Orioles, an increasingly observed species during New England’s winter, and several Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. The lone bright spot of this second-quarter stretch was a Pine Warbler visiting a suet feeder—a welcome and reassuring sight. There’s something especially satisfying during a Big Day when the birds show up exactly where they’re “supposed to be.”
Halftime
After midday, the Kestrels charged toward the coast, licking their wounds and taking stock of what birds remained. Clearly, some expected inland birds like Red-breasted Nuthatch were still missing (and unlikely to be found away from choice forested habitats), so the attention shifted to picking up coastal species by ones and twos at a series of pre-selected stops. Here, new habitats offered the prospect of adding critical seabirds, waterfowl, and shorebirds to their tally.
Fortunately, the team had adhered closely to their schedule, and despite the deep snowdrifts from a recent coastal storm, the Kestrels endured the elements with relative ease, scoping ducks, seabirds, and shorebirds from a seawall or trudging through deep snow to access dune habitat. These new species didn’t just pad the day’s totals—the sudden surge of sightings energized the team, a much-needed boost after hours of braving sub‑freezing temperatures since before dawn.
The Fourth Quarter
In addition to a rich suite of New England birds tied to marine, estuarine, and coastal biomes, raptors provided a thrilling late-day highlight. The team scored sightings of Merlin, Red-shouldered Hawk, and a spectacular dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk, an unexpected prize. As the day drew to a close, the team scanned a large expanse of salt marshes in fading daylight, hoping for a ‘Hail Mary’. Their final official species of the day was a buzzer-beater and came in the form of a graceful Peregrine Falcon flying across the marsh, which sealed the Kestrels’ impressive day.
Even though the contest was over, the day held one more reward. Under a purple evening sky, a large white shape appeared on a residential rooftop—a Snowy Owl, one of New England’s most sought-after winter birds. The team paused on the way to Joppa Flats Education Center for the evening’s event, silent and appreciative, lingering longer than they could have during the fast-paced 12-hour contest, a quiet moment to savor the beauty of this rare moment.
More Than a Contest
The Kestrels’ preparation, teamwork, knowledge of the region, and a bit of luck led to an impressive finish: 77 species and 159 points, earning the Dave Larson Award for the team with the most species, even if not the most points overall.
But the scoreboard was never the point. What stayed with the team—and what makes the Superbowl of Birding so special—was the time spent outdoors with friends, the shared excitement of spotting rare birds, and the knowledge that every observation and every dollar raised directly support conservation. From listening for owls in the stillness of a morning to huddling over a checklist to pausing to admire a Snowy Owl under a rising moon, these experiences reminded them that birding is as much about wonder as it is about numbers.
Post-Game Playbook: Conservation
At Birding University, we believe in walking the walk when it comes to conservation. For the 2026 Superbowl of Birding, we were more than a name on a roster or bodies in a car—we sponsored the team, covering entry costs and donating a portion of proceeds from a flash sale of paid subscriptions to support the Harris Center’s Kestrel Conservation Project. That support is made possible by our paid subscribers, for which we are extremely grateful. As we grow, we remain committed to conservation-minded partnerships with the Harris Center for Conservation Education and other organizations that share our mission in the seasons ahead. Please consider joining our paid tier to help us continue this work.
Even though this year’s Superbowl of Birding ended at sunset on January 31, the impact continues. There’s still time to support the Harris Center’s Kestrel Conservation Project and help ensure these birds—and the joy of watching them—thrive for years to come.
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What a great article. I was unaware of all of the different birding competitions and all the work and planning! Can you let the readers know some of the best ways (beyond being a paid subscriber the Birding University) to support these types of activities?