Every October there is one Saturday when I set my alarm earlier than usual, and it has nothing to do with work. It's October Big Day: twenty-four hours when birders all over the planet go outside, look up and write down every bird they find. This year it falls on Saturday, 10 October 2026. If you happen to be in Guatapé that weekend, you are in the country that has been at the top of this count for years, and that won the last two Octobers.
What is October Big Day?
October Big Day is a global bird count run by eBird, the bird-sighting platform of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. From midnight to midnight in your own time zone, people go birding and log what they see in the free eBird or Merlin apps. eBird then merges every checklist into one giant list for the whole planet.
You don't need to be an expert, and you don't need a full day: eBird says even 10 minutes of birding from home counts. The one rule that matters is the deadline. Submit your checklist by 13 October so it makes it into the official results.
You don't need to be an expert, and you don't need a full day: eBird says even 10 minutes of birding from home counts.
It has grown fast. Last year, on 11 October 2025, nearly 900,000 people took part, and together they recorded 7,834 species in a single day. The October record is still 2024, with 7,849.
How Colombia has done
Colombia is not a one-year surprise. It has been at the top of this count for years, and it finished first in the world on the last two October Big Days. These are eBird's official results for the last three Octobers:
| Year | Colombia | Place | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1,326 species | 2nd | Peru, 1,384 |
| 2024 | 1,403 species | 1st | Peru, 1,328 |
| 2025 | 1,382 species | 1st | Peru, 1,340 |
October is the smaller of the two Big Days. On the Global Big Day in May 2026, Colombia logged 1,566 species, again the most of any country.
The numbers keep moving after each event, because late checklists keep arriving. eBird's live lists now show more than 1,400 Colombian species for each of the last three Octobers. The figures above are the ones eBird published in its official results.
Why Colombia has so many birds
Colombia has more bird species than any other country: over 1,900, depending on which checklist you use. The reason is geography. Three separate ranges of the Andes run through the country, with deep valleys between them. Add a Caribbean coast, a Pacific coast, the Amazon, the plains of the Llanos and the forests on the border with Panama, and you get an enormous number of habitats packed into one country. Each slope and valley holds its own birds, and more than eighty of them live nowhere else on Earth.
Big Day birding near Guatapé
Most people know Guatapé for El Peñol, the lake and the colorful zócalos. Fewer people know that the forests between Guatapé and San Rafael, where the mountains drop toward warmer valleys, are full of birds.
Our birdwatching mornings take place at a farm about 40 minutes from town, registered on eBird as the hotspot La Posada De Las Aves. Birders have recorded 238 species there so far. On last year's October Big Day, our guide walked under two kilometers in just under six hours and logged 53 species.
Some highlights from that farm's list:
- Colombian endemics, birds that live only in Colombia, such as the Colombian Chachalaca, the Red-bellied Grackle and the White-mantled Barbet.
- Tanagers in every color: Blue-necked, Golden-hooded, Bay-headed, Crimson-backed and Swallow Tanagers, plus the Green Honeycreeper.
- Hummingbirds, around fifteen species, from the White-necked Jacobin to the Purple-crowned Fairy.
- Motmots, which locals call barranqueros because they dig their nests into earth banks, the barrancos.
October is also when the northern migrants arrive. Warblers that spent the summer in the United States and Canada, like the Blackburnian and Canada Warblers, show up in the same trees as the local tanagers, along with Summer Tanagers and Swainson's Thrushes. That mix is part of what makes an October checklist here so long.
How to join October Big Day from Guatapé
- Download eBird or Merlin. Both are free, and one account works for both.
- On Saturday 10 October, go out for at least 10 minutes. A hotel balcony over Guatapé Lake, the malecón at sunrise or a walk up a country road all work.
- Write down every bird you see or hear. Merlin's Sound ID can help you put a name to the songs.
- Submit your checklist in eBird or Merlin by 13 October.
Come birding with us
If you'd rather go with someone who knows every call in the forest by heart, join our birdwatching tour in Guatapé. It starts early, ideally at 6:30 am, and lasts about four to five hours. You walk around 2.5 km past rivers and waterfalls with a bilingual guide, binoculars included, and stop for a paisa breakfast in the middle of it all: eggs with hogao, arepa de choclo with fresh cheese, coffee and hot chocolate. Depending on the season, we see 40 to 60 species in a morning. It costs COP $239,000 per person, for a minimum of two people, and we can add round-trip transport from Guatapé. Coming from Medellín? Here are the best ways to get to Guatapé, or book a private transfer.
Want to know more about what you might see? Read our guide to the must-see bird species around Guatapé.
Whether you join us or just step onto your balcony with a coffee for ten minutes, add your checklist on Saturday. Every bird you log is one more for the count, and maybe one more reason for Colombia to stay on top.
Sources
- eBird, October Big Day 2026 (date, how to join, deadline)
- eBird results: 2023, 2024, 2025, Global Big Day 2026
- South American Classification Committee, country lists (Colombia 1,916 species, 86 endemics)
- eBird hotspot La Posada De Las Aves and our guide's October Big Day 2025 checklist
