jan 100 challenge 2025
look at me, three posts in two days. prolific!
anyway, it’s january again, and that means it’s time for the january 100 birding challenge. if you haven’t heard of it, it’s a fun little challenge where birders go out and try to nab sightings of one hundred unique species of birds within the first thirty-one days of the year. it’s not a competition, and really just a challenge to get yourself out into the world during one of the coldest months of the year (in the northern hemisphere, anyway). i really like this challenge; winter is a tough time of year for many people, myself included, and getting out of the house, getting some fresh air, and working at a hobby is a good way to improve affect and mood. plus, many birders don’t realize just how many species of our avian friends hang out here in the winter! i know i couldn’t name 100 birds off the top of my head that winter here, and yet dedicated birders can nail over that number in a month!
for my own personal happiness and mental well-being, i’m not going to even really try for the full 100 this year. my goal is only to get out a bit more and appreciate the birds that i don’t normally get to see in the warmer months.my secondary goal, which i may or may not achieve, is to improve upon my number from last year. then, i managed some forty-four species in around two and a half weeks. i started late and didn’t try all too hard to find the more skittish birds. i’m really not much of a chaser. i prefer to hit my normal spots and enjoy spotting novel visitors.
lastly, before we get into this year’s list, the rules. these are self-imposed and may vary from person to person, but i find these guidelines to make the challenge more fulfilling for me. first, i must see and/or identify the bird myself. simply being told by someone else that a particular species is nearby isn’t good enough. i have to find it. second, only wild native (or naturally occuring) species count. i won’t count escapees or birds kept in captivity, even if those in captivity are also found in the wild in my area. i do still count invasives and previously domesticated birds, like starlings and feral pigeons. i don’t think that the fairly small number of unique species of those effect the list too much. thirdly, the bird must be spotted with my own eyes. no remote bird feeder cams, no highlight reels, nothing like that. the only caveat is for feeders that i personally set up. and that’s because i just got one for christmas and i’m pumped about it. but i won’t be watching the Cornell Lab live cams and counting those birds or anything like that.
and that’s about it! without further ado, here is the list of my 2025 jan 100 species. new species to my life list will be marked with a star. this list will be updated as more birds are spotted (and as i remember to do so).
- American Robin
- American Crow
- Blue Jay
- Northern Cardinal
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Mourning Dove
- Rock Pigeon
- Mallard
- Hooded Merganser
- Ring-billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Canada Goose
- Ruddy Duck
- European Starling
- Northern Flicker
- White-throated Sparrow
- Downy Woodpecker
- Carolina Wren
- Tufted Titmouse
- Carolina Chickadee
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- American Coot
- Lesser Black-backed Gull
- Song Sparrow
- Eastern Bluebird
- Fox Sparrow *
- Common Merganser
- Bufflehead
- Bald Eagle
- Greater Scaup *
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Gadwall
- Wood Duck
- Northern Shoveler
- American Black Duck
- Belted Kingfisher
- Rough-legged Hawk *
- American Kestrel
- Horned Lark *
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Chipping Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Trumpeter Swan *
- Ring-necked Duck
- Green-winged Teal
- Turkey Vulture
- Northern Harrier
- Merlin *
- Northern Mockingbird
- American Tree Sparrow
- Purple Finch *
- Common Grackle
- Red-Shouldered Hawk
- Golden Eagle *
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Great Blue Heron
- American Wigeon
update jan 16: i now have the same number of species as my total from last year! onward and upward!
update jan 19: after a relatively unsuccessful day out birding yesterday, we still added a solid twelve new species to the list, including four new lifers! pretty exciting, all things considered, and a new january record at that
update jan 21: almost to sixty! thought i was, but turns out that a bird i thought was a snow goose was really an escaped domestic duck. sad, and a bit frustrating, but that’s how it goes, i suppose. the dangers of using crappy binos to do my ids. fifty-nine it is.
update feb 8: we’ve now eclipsed january and the possibility of expanding my list further has ended. i do have a couple of last species i need to add to the list, which i’m working on now. i still think that this was a beneficial experience– it got me out into the cold weather and injected a bit of dynamism into the bleary day-to-day of winter. i always enjoy doing this, it’s a nice challenge and a good way to start the year list with a hefty chunk of species. i think that pretty soon i’ll be printing off a complete ohio checklist to keep track of my life list offline. as i’ve grown in my birding habits, i’ve also grown to like doing ebird checklists less and less. at least for now, it seems like it puts too much pressure on me and i’m more focused on checklisting than on being present in the world and enjoying the avian life around me. it’s become more of a meditative experience and a journey of connection to the natural world. i think i’m going to put together a post about that idea pretty soon. it’s been something on my mind a lot lately. we’ll save the waxing poetic for that post. i think i’ll wrap it up here for now. i’m going to do one last update on this post when i finally finish up my january list with a final tally. until then!
that’s all for now. like i said, i’ll be updating this list periodically as i spot additional species.
till next time