The Year 2026

I wanted to write a few beautiful and inspiring words, but it didn’t quite work out — so I’ll write honestly, as it is, without unnecessary embellishment.

1. Best Photo of the Year and Absolute Winner of the Big Year 2026

Today we are happy to announce that, with partial support and assistance from the BirdWeather project and Tim Clark personally, we will be able to award two major prizes based on the results of 2026:

• the author of the Best Photo of the Year according to the website (that is, the author of the photo that receives the most likes during the year and appears in the “Best Photo” section of the website), and
• the absolute winner of the Big Year.

Both winners will receive a PUC station, which can be used for listening to and identifying bird songs, both at stationary locations and during hikes or travels.

P.S. If the author of the Best Photo of the Year is also the absolute winner of the Big Year 2026, the second prize will be awarded to the author of the photo ranked second.
If the same situation occurs again, the prize will be awarded to the author of the photo ranked third, and so on, until two different individuals are determined as prize recipients.

2. Bearded Tit — Bird of the Year

This year, as part of a pilot project, we would like to announce the Bird of the Year 2026 according to uabirds.org — the Bearded Tit!

The goal of this project is to collect as much data as possible throughout the year on the distribution of the Bearded Tit. We would like to pay special attention to:

breeding distribution (late March – late July),

winter records (November – early March),

spring arrival (March).

The more photos we manage to collect across different seasons, the more information we will be able to gather and analyze for this species.

To make the search for Bearded Tits not only interesting but also motivating, we are happy to announce that everyone who adds their own Bearded Tit observations made in 2026 will receive, in 2027, an informational booklet about the species — including the results of its study based on your observations.

In addition, participants who, during the year, upload photos of the Bearded Tit and photos of at least 50 other species (meaning they will have 51 or more species in the Big Year 2026 ranking, including the Bearded Tit) will receive a special gift — a mug featuring the Bird of the Year.

3. Other nominations — spoiler

Our team is also working on additional ways to encourage participants to upload their own observations to our platform. If we successfully find sponsors and partners, we are planning the following:

awards for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd absolute winners of the Big Year;

awards for authors of the Best Photo of the Month;

special recognition for participants who manage to photograph more than 100, 150, 200, and 250 species during the year.

Information on these points will be updated as new details become available.

1. Bird of the Year — Bearded Tit! Photo: Oksana RALDUHINA

2. PUC — the prize for Best Photo of the Year and the Absolute Winner of the Big Year 2026