There are a total of five modules included in the Young Birder of the Year Mentoring Program to accommodate a broad range of interests in young birders. Participants may do as many or as few of the modules as they choose. Finalists are selected for each of the five modules in two age categories: 10–13 years and 14–18 years. In addition, we will award the title of 2024 Young Birder of the Year in each age division. You do not have to be in the running for the Young Birder of the Year to participate in the program.

To qualify for the overall award of the title Young Birder of the Year:

1. Complete BOTH of the Major Modules –

Field Notebook AND Conservation/Community Leadership

OR

2. Complete ONE of the Major Modules AND TWO of the Supporting Modules –

►Illustration ►Writing ►Photography

Click on the tabs below for detailed INSTRUCTIONS and ENTRY SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS for each module.

Field Notebook – Major Module

Talk to any birder above a certain age, and that person will tell you it’s utterly essential to keep a field notebook. Rachel Carson and Roger Tory Peterson kept field notebooks. Keeping a record of your sightings is a fun and rewarding way of sharpening your skills as a birder. For birders today, that means both written and digital record-keeping! 

Field Notebook page by Zita Robertson, 2021.

We at the ABA believe that the wisest approach to the Field Notebook Module is to chronicle your birding experiences in a manner that is well suited to your own inclinations and aspirations as a birder. To be sure, you owe it to yourself to experiment in diverse mediums of note taking. The Field Notebook Module is intended to provide practice and application of three key field skills. 

Field Skill #1: Record your Observations in the Field 

Write them down or use a voice recorder app on your smartphone. Sketch what you see.

Field Skill #2: Use Technology 

You don’t have to have a fancy camera; simply holding your binoculars up to your phone (“digibinning”) can yield impressive results. So can pointing your phone at a singing bird and pressing the red “record” button.

Field Skill #3: Share with Others! 

Of course, you’re already sharing your observations with the YBY Mentors, and that’s great. But we also want to encourage you to share your observations more broadly, via eBird, social media, and more.

INSTRUCTIONS for Field Notebook Module: 

1- Create a record of one excursion afield. Basically, go birding—and write your notes down, while you are in the field. Once complete, the entry in your physical notebook should be at least three to five (3-5) notebook pages long. With your registration you will receive a 8.5 x 5.5 mixed media pad and Micron pen.

Once you are home, you may add content to your field journaling. Transcribe recorded notes, cite some highlights (perhaps a rare dragonfly), make technical annotations or add color to your sketch, go online and find some references putting that put a cool behavior you observed in context.

Field Notebook page by John McPhie, 2021.

Whatever you do add, make note of it for the YBY Mentors so that they understand your process! For example, “I pencil-sketched this molting Turkey Vulture based on my observations in the field. When I got back home, I numbered the remiges and added color.” “In the field, I wrote down the number of times the wren sang, plus how many times it visited the nest box. When I got back home, I consulted BotW Online and Bent, and added some notes on how my observations relate to those references.”

Records should include all of the following:

• A written description of the visual appearance of one bird species that you saw. Example: Describe the facial pattern of one of the Killdeers. The Killdeer is a distinctive bird, but try describing the pattern on its face. It’s not easy!

• A written description of some aspect of a bird other than its visual appearance—basically, what it was doing. Example: Describe the complex social interactions among the Cliff Swallows—direct interactions between individuals, as well as the general behavior of the flock.

• A written description of the song or other vocalization of one bird species that you heard. Example: Describe the song of the Sora, perhaps by including a field sketch of the spectrogram of the bird’s simple, endlessly repeated song.

• A sketch of at least one bird species that you saw in the field. Example: Sketch the male Hooded Merganser, emphasizing “female-like” characters and pointing to evidence of molt. 

• Notes on your surroundings. Example: Report the basic coverage—start time, finish time, mileage, weather, habitat notes, etc.

• At least one new thing you learned. Example: Muse on the size differences between the Black-capped Chickadee and the Bushtit, something you may not have fully appreciated beforehand.

• At least one question you asked while in the field—and whose answer you may still not know. Example: You may ask yourself—Just how fast do Mallards molt at this time of the year and is there variation between males and females?

2- Submit an annotated eBird checklist from your time afield. Be sure to use the “comments” section—both in the “Date and Effort” section and for the individual species. Try to upload at least one photo, one sound recording, and one link to an external site. (See the eBird checklist example below.)

3- Submit media to some source other than eBird. Possibilities include but are not limited to: Xeno-Canto, Flickr, and iNaturalist. Share your experience via social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. If you and your family are uncomfortable with social media, consider sharing with your local bird club or school.

4- REPEAT STEPS #1 – 3 on three field excursions over the course of the contest period.

5- Write an introspective essay summarizing/reflecting/expanding on what was learned over the field season after your field notebook outings have been completed. Your essay should be no more than three (3) pages. Proofread and spellcheck your essay. 

Mandatory Essay Format
Font: Cambria 12-pt. font size
Spacing: 18-pt. (1½-space) vertical spacing
Margins: 1-inch margins

eBird Annotated Checklist Example by Yishai Blum, 2023 Young Birder of the Year:

ebird.org/view/checklist/S46776303

Your checklist does not need to include rare birds or exceptional photos and audio. Share what you observed! Yishai also submitted media to Xeno-Canto, Flickr, iNaturalist, and shared his experience on social media with SnapChat.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS for Field Notebook Module:                       

Create a Powerpoint, Keynote, or Google Slides presentation that can be exported into a PDF.

Directions for combining all the module elements into a single presentation:

  1. Create a set of slides with scans of your field notebook excursion–these are your notes done in the official notebook, while in the field. This series of slides should be a scan of the 3-5 notebook pages of observations and sketches. Each notebook page gets its own slide. A page = 1 page.
    Label these slides {In The Field Observations}. 
  2. Create a slide that contains a screenshot(s) of your annotated eBird checklist for the same field excursion. Include a note about any other media submission you made in addition to eBird. Example: iNaturalist, Xeno-Canto, Flickr, etc.
    Label this slide {Annotated eBird Checklist – Field Observation}.
  3. REPEAT THE STEPS #1-2 for each of your three birding excursions.
  4. The final step is to export the completed digital presentation as a PDF.
  5. Create a PDF version of your introspective essay. 
    Save your essay with the File Name Convention: YourName-Age-FormalEssay 

File Naming Convention for the Field Notebook Module:
YourName-Age-FieldNotebook (example: RachelCarson-16-FieldNotebook.PDF)

Field Notebook Submission Checklist

  1. Submit the PDF of your digital presentation.
  2. Submit the PDF of your introspective essay.
  3. Submit a one page PDF personal biography which includes a high-res photo of you, brief history of your birding, why you entered the program, and who has helped you along the way. (Only one biography needed per YBYMP participant. You do not need to submit multiple biographies if you participate in multiple modules.) File Naming Convention for biography: YourName-Age-Biography
  4. Upload your files to the ABA Dropbox by February 1, 2024.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Failure to follow all submission requirements, especially file-naming protocols, may cause your entries to be disqualified. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification on Slack before the submission date. We want you to succeed and to enjoy participating.

Conservation and Community Leadership – Major Module 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Submit a brief description of what you intend to do for your project in the YBY Slack Workspace “module-cons-comm” channel or by DM to Laura Guerard by September 30, 2023. ABA staff must approve Conservation and Community Leadership projects before you proceed. Approval and/or suggested changes will be given within a week of a proposal being posted. 

Jackie Kuroda successfully petitioned to have the Peregrine Falcon named the Official Bird of Rockford, IL as part of her 2021 project “Peregrine Falcon – An Official City Bird Initiative.”

Pick a project that will involve time in the field and will either a) further the conservation of a bird species and/or their habitat, or b) improve birding opportunities, or educate and inspire other birders.

Here are a few possibilities, just to spark your imagination:

  • Create and monitor a nest box trail and give a talk about your findings to a local bird or garden club.
  • Create and monitor a bird-friendly habitat on public property—a public park, schoolyard, or community area. Give a presentation to the property managers to make sure it is maintained properly in the future.
  • Create a printed or online site guide for a birding area and show it being used.
  • Offer field trips or fun classes designed to inspire and educate birders or inspire non-birders to enjoy birds.
  • Participate in a leadership capacity in a young birders’ group, developing the program in a meaningful way.
  • Participate in an ongoing conservation or community action project, documenting your experiences and contribution.
  • Set up and maintain an online presence for a bird club or similar group.
  • Start a YouTube channel and produce videos or start a podcast with the goal of inspiring enjoyment and/or protection of wild birds in others.
  • Write a curriculum on birds and submit to a local school to teach as an online course.
  • Write, illustrate, and submit a publishing plan for a book on birds or bird conservation.
  • Illustrate a graphic novel featuring the ABA’s Code of Birding Ethics.

You should expect to spend about 40 hours on your project, not counting the time involved in putting together the presentation. The presentation of your project should include writing and imagery that captures what you aimed to do, your experiences during the project, notable successes or failures, and what you learned or skills you developed along the way. Tell the story of your journey and how you feel you impacted the greater community.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS for Conservation and Community Leadership Module:

1. Create a Powerpoint,  Keynote, or Google Slides digital presentation detailing your project step-by-step. Your presentation may include photographs, video, audio, charts, graphs, text, reference to a website, graphics, and media. The goal is to tell us the story or stories of your project: how you planned or imagined it would go, how that matched the reality, what you learned, who or what was impacted, challenges you faced, people you met along the way and helped you out, and so on.

Note: We encourage adult mentoring and are curious as to how our young birders are getting such help. Please include a slide with a sentence or two letting us know if you had adult help on this module.

2. Export the digital presentation as a PDF.

File Naming Convention for the Conservation and Community Leadership Module:
YourName-Age-Conservation (example: RachelCarson-16-Conservation.PDF)

*A special note about the text in your presentation: Presentations are not designed to present large amounts of text. A good rule of thumb is not to use any font sizes smaller than 30 points, unless absolutely necessary. If you have supporting or explanatory text that needs to be included, you can include a “text slide” or two where needed. 

Sample Community & Conservation presentation >>

Conservation & Community Leadership Submission Checklist

  1. Submit the PDF of your digital presentation.
  2. Submit a one page PDF personal biography which includes a high-res photo of you, brief history of your birding, why you entered the program, and who has helped you along the way. (Only one biography needed per YBYMP participant. You do not need to submit multiple biographies if you participate in multiple modules.) File Naming Convention for biography: YourName-Age-Biography
  3. Upload your files to the ABA Dropbox by February 1, 2024.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Failure to follow all submission requirements, especially file-naming protocols, may cause your entries to be disqualified. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification on Slack before the submission date. We want you to succeed and to enjoy participating.

Illustration – Supporting Module

The Illustration module involves rendering birds that you see. You should be regularly sketching birds and completing a detailed drawing or painting of a bird at least once a month. Illustrative mediums may include ink, pencil, colored pencil, paint, digital illustration or another medium of your choice. Try to do a few drawings while you’re watching a cooperative bird in the field or at bird feeders. You may also include illustrations of captive zoo or pet birds, but your submission should include at least 75% wild, free-living birds. All submitted illustrations must be your own original work. Though you may refer to works of others as inspiration and research material, you must not violate copyright law. Maximum entry is six illustrations, paintings, etc.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS for Illustration Module:

Bewick’s Wren painting by Teodelina Martelli, 2017.

The Illustration Module is to be submitted in TWO formats.

1. Mail the six (6) originals to the ABA Headquarters. Please use Priority Mail, FedEx, or UPS and get a tracking number. Your submission must be postmarked to arrive before February 1, 2024.

Mail to: ABA-Laura Guerard
3860 Bayshore Road Suite 4, #1214
Cape May, NJ 08204-3200

2. Create a single PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides digital presentation. Scan or photograph your illustrations as hi-res jpegs and insert one piece of artwork per slide. Before each artwork slide add an introductory slide with:

    1. Title of your piece 
    2. Medium used
    3. Brief artist’s statement (two to five sentences) to share background information on your piece such as what inspired you or that you were trying a new technique or medium for the first time.

Note: We encourage adult mentoring and are curious as to how our young birders are getting such help. Please include a slide with a sentence or two letting us know if you had adult help if any, and how much on this module.

3. Export and save your digital presentation as a PDF.

File Naming Convention for the Illustration Module:
YourName-Age-Illustration (example: RachelCarson-16-Illustration.PDF)

Sample Illustration module presentation >>

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please submit all entries in the Illustration module on art boards or paper within the size range of 4” x 6” up to 14”x 18”. Please make sure your name and age are on the back of each piece.

If you would like to submit digital art work you do not need to send a physical print. For 2024, we are unable to accept other sizes and 3-D mediums due to the shipping and handling of these items and extra return shipping costs unless pre-approved by emailing ybymp@aba.org.

Illustration Module Submission Checklist

  1. Submit your 6 originals by mail to the ABA. DM a tracking number to the Program Coordinator in Slack. Your artwork must arrive before February 1, 2024.
  2. Submit the PDF of your digital presentation.
  3. Submit one page PDF personal biography which includes a high-res photo of you, brief history of your birding, why you entered the program, and who has helped you along the way. (Only one biography needed per YBYMP participant. You do not need to submit multiple biographies if you participate in multiple modules.) File Naming Convention for biography: YourName-Age-Biography
  4. Upload your files to the ABA Dropbox by February 1, 2024.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Failure to follow all submission requirements, especially file-naming protocols, may cause your entries to be disqualified. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification on Slack before the submission date. We want you to succeed and to enjoy participating.

Writing – Supporting Module

Write about your favorite birds, a special or significant personal birding experience, an unexpected encounter or insight, or your thoughts on birding. The best way to improve your writing is to write often. Consider regularly writing and completing an essay, story, or poem once a month. Use your powers of observation and description to their fullest! Be creative in your word use and make your writing reflect your own thoughts. Read a variety of literary styles on birding and other subjects for examples and inspiration, but strive to develop your own voice and style.

IMPORTANT NOTE: YBYMP participants have the opportunity to submit writing for ABA’s Young Writers Awards. These awards include having your work published in a professional setting and an honorarium.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS for Writing Module:

Poem submission by Cecilia Lewis, 2021.

Minimum entry is six pages of writing and a maximum of 10 pages. Each piece should have a cover page that includes a title and word count. The total page count does not include the cover pages or sources cited pages.

Mandatory Format
Font: Cambria 12-pt. font size
Spacing: 18-pt. (1½-space) vertical spacing
Margins: 1-inch margins
Footer: Include the title of your piece in the footer and a page # on each page

1. Combine your entries into a single PDF.

Each entry should include a cover page with:

    1. Your name
    2. Title of the piece *For poems, include title at the top of the first page of your poem*
    3. Word count

Note: We encourage adult mentoring and are curious as to how our young birders are getting such help. Please include a sentence or two letting us know if you had adult help on this module.

2. Submit your PDF document.

File Naming Convention for the Writing Module: YourName-Age-Writing (example: RachelCarson-16-Writing.PDF)

Click here for some expert advice offered by Birding magazine’s Editor, Ted Floyd, on writing.

Writing Module Submission Checklist

  1. Submit a PDF with your combined writing entries.
  2. Submit a one page PDF personal biography which includes a high-res photo of you, brief history of your birding, why you entered the program, and who has helped you along the way. (Only one biography needed per YBYMP participant. You do not need to submit multiple biographies if you participate in multiple modules.) File Naming Convention for biography: FirstNameLastName-Age-Biography
  3. Upload your files to the ABA Dropbox by February 1, 2024.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Failure to follow all submission requirements, especially file-naming protocols, may cause your entries to be disqualified. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification on Slack before the submission date. We want you to succeed and to enjoy participating.

Photography – Supporting Module

Your photographs for this module must be digital. All of the photographs you submit should be of wild birds, though they may be interacting with people or manmade structures. For example, backyard and feeder birds are allowed. Photos will be judged on overall artistic merit, creativity, and technical skill as well as labeling. Maximum entry is six photographs.

Royal Tern by Zealon Wight-Maier for the photography module, 2022.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS for Photography Module:

1. Create a PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides presentation of all 6 high-resolution photos that you are submitting for the mentors to review. After each photo slide, please include a single slide as a title slide. The title slide should include:

    1. The title of the piece.
    2. The name(s) of the bird(s).
    3. Date and location.
    4. The camera and settings used to take the photo.
    5. A short two-to-five sentence commentary for each photo. Please, do not use fonts smaller than 18 points.

Note: We encourage adult mentoring and are curious as to how our young birders are getting such help. Please include a slide with a sentence or two letting us know if you had adult help on this module.

2. Export your digital presentation as a PDF.

File Naming Convention for Photography Module entries:
YourName-Age-Photography (example: RachelCarson-16-Photography.PDF)

Sample Photography Module presentation >>

Photography Module Submission Checklist

  1. Submit the PDF of your digital presentation.
  2. Submit a one page PDF personal biography which includes a high-res photo of you, brief history of your birding, why you entered the program, and who has helped you along the way. (Only one biography needed per YBYMP participant. You do not need to submit multiple biographies if you participate in multiple modules.) File Naming Convention for biography: YourName-Age-Biography
  3. Upload your files to the ABA Dropbox by February 1, 2024.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Failure to follow all submission requirements, especially file-naming protocols, may cause your entries to be disqualified. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification on Slack before the submission date. We want you to succeed and to enjoy participating.