Birdathon — Pilchuck Audubon Society

Make 2025 the year you take the next step in your birding journey, join us for a class!

Birdathon: May 1 - 31, 2025

Join us for our most exciting fundraiser of the year!

Birdathon is a uniquely Audubon way to support our mission and help protect our birds.

Photo by Glenn Landberg

Our Birdathon has two components:

Friendly birding competition

In this hallmark activity of our Birdathon, teams compete in a friendly birding competition to see who can spot the most bird species and raise the most money while doing it.

Similar to a walk-a-thon, participants collect pledges from family, friends, work colleagues, and others who want to support local wildlife conservation. But instead of getting a pledge of $1.00 per mile walked, participants ask for a pledge for each bird species seen by a person or team. Teams can also ask for pledges of flat amounts (i.e., $25).

Participants can rack up species counts and pledges for the entire month of May.

Photography contest

Our contest focuses on the incredible birds of Washington state. We are lucky to have so many talented photographers in our state, and our contest provides opportunities for both young and elder to showcase their photography in our youth and adult categories.


Thank you to our sponsors!


Fundraisers like Birdathon are critical to our ability to carry out our mission of protecting and conserving our local bird communities. Every pledge and donation, no matter how large or small, makes an enormous difference in supporting our efforts.

Help us reach our goal of $13,000!

Total Pledged

Participate in our Friendly Birding Competition

Emphasis on friendly! This is all in good fun, and the real winners are the birds because you are helping to boost local bird conservation efforts - thank you!

Simply follow the steps below to participate and show your support for birds!

Be a Sponsor/Donor

Maybe you’re not really a bird person, but your best friend or relative lives and breathes birds. You can support their passion by making a fixed pledge to their Birdathon team at any time (for example, $50), or by making a per-species pledge towards their final species count (for example, $0.50 per species). Make a donation here or let them know you want to make a pledge! Help us reach our goal of $13,000!

How to submit your species count & pledges

Click the button below to submit your updated species count and pledge totals. Please submit these as often as you’d like, but at least once per week. We will keep a running tally for each team, so send in your updated numbers often and check back frequently to see how everyone is doing!

2024 Big Day (Species Counts)

  • Species Seen
  • Species Seen

2024 Big Month (Species Counts)

  • Species seen
  • Species seen

Meet Our 2025 Birdathon Teams!

Birding for our Caws

Team members: Brian Zinke and Madelyn Voelker

We are excited to participate in our 6th Birdathon! Our counts from previous years are:

  • 2024: 120 species

  • 2023: 78 species

  • 2022: 112 species

  • 2021: 103 species

  • 2020: 77 species


Unable to participate this year but still want to support our programs, science, and conservation efforts? Make a donation today!


Top fundraising and birding teams from previous years

Funds raised and number of species in parentheses

Top Fundraising Team Big Day Washington Big Month Global Big Month
  2024   Four Eyes Birdswise
($2,334)
Counting Crows
(65)
Birding for Our Caws
(120)
Birding for Our Caws
(120)
  2023   Clark's Nutcrackers
($6,277)
Clark's Nutcrackers
(91)
Clark's Nutcrackers
(235)
Clark's Nutcrackers
(235)
  2022   Timberdoodles
($3,700)
Counting Crows
(58)
Timberdoodles
(226)
Timberdoodles
(226)
  2021   Birderline Personalities
($3,840)
Birderline Personalities
(101)
Birderline Personalities
(153)
Birderline Personalities
(218)
  2020   Exploring Egtvedts
($2,389)
Birderline Personalities
(173)