Announcing the 2015 Young Birders of the Year!

Contestants have been on the edges of their seats for the past month, but the long wait is over. The judges have reviewed all of the entries and submitted their scores. ABA staff has tabulated the results, and we are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2015 Young Birder of the Year Contest!
Your 2015 Young Birder of the Year for the 14-18 age category is 15-year-old Marky Mutchler of Liberty, Missouri! Marky took top honors in the Illustration module, as well as second place in the Conservation & Community Leadership Module and third place in the Photography Module. In second place is last year’s Young Birder of the Year, Chloe Walker, from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Elizabeth Bevins from Herndon Virginia takes home third place honors.

Marky Mutchler with an Arizona Sister during 2014 Camp Chiricahua (Photo: Jennie Duberstein)

The 2015 Young Birder of the Year in the 10-13 age category is 12-year-old Dessi Sieburth from  Montrose, California with a remarkable 98.5 points. Dessi took top honors in both the Conservation & Community Leadership and Field Notebook modules. Maxime Pitchon, a 13-year-old from Longmeadow, Massachusetts takes second place, and 12-year-old Ethan Rising, from Cincinnati, Ohio is our third place winner.

Dessi Sieburth

A warm congratulations from all of us at the ABA to every participant in this year’s contest. You continue to amaze us!
Each of the overall ABA Young Birder of the Year winners will receive a pair of Leica Trinovid binoculars, generously donated by ABA’s Legacy Sponsor, Leica Sport Optics. Prizes for individual module winners are donated by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Peterson’ Guides, Princeton University Press, Riverhead Books, and Sibley Guide to Birds Second Edition.
A special thanks to our dedicated team of volunteer judges, who spent many hours reviewing entries and writing comments for each contestant.
We’ll be posting interviews with the contest winners in the coming weeks, along with examples of some of their award-winning submissions. In the meanwhile, good birding and remember – the 2016 Young Birder of the Year Contest begins April 15th!