It is now the 20th of January. For most, the initial burst of New Year’s energy has started to wane, replaced by the mundane reality of the working year. But for a specific group of current Londolozi staff and alumni, the intensity is only just beginning to ramp up. Today marks the third week of a year-long descent into a very particular kind of madness: The 2026 Birding Big Year.
The rules are as simple as they are unforgiving. We have until midnight on December 31st to see as many different bird species as possible within the borders of South Africa. There are no prizes, other than the internal satisfaction of beating your friends and the right to be insufferable at the dinner table. For this group, that is more than enough.
Just kidding, there is one tactile prize, over and above the bragging rights, the most incredible birding book is on the line; All the Birds of the World by Josep del Hoyo.
All the Birds of the World by Josep del Hoyo
The Integrity of the ‘Tick’
We’ve moved past the era of “trust me, I heard it.” In this challenge, hearing a call—no matter how distinct—counts for exactly zero. If you didn’t see the feathers, it didn’t happen. To keep us honest (or as honest as a competitive birder can be), we are once again using the Bindo app.
Bindo is the ultimate equaliser. It doesn’t just record the species; it logs your exact GPS coordinates at the moment of the entry. This effectively kills the “armchair birder” strategy. You can’t sit on your deck in the Sabi Sands and claim a Pel’s Fishing Owl if your GPS shows you haven’t moved from the bar. If you want the tick, you have to go to the habitat.
Ranger/accountant Kevin Power taking a moment to get a closer look at something in the distance.
Diversity is Strategy
Success in a Big Year isn’t about how long you spend staring at a single bush; it’s about how many biomes you can physically get your body into. South Africa is a massive, ecologically diverse playground, and the winner will likely be the person with the highest fuel bill.
While the Sabi Sands offers an incredible baseline of bushveld specialists where we could tick off more than 300 birds, the leaderboard will eventually be decided by those who venture into the fynbos of the Cape, the mist-belt forests of KwaZulu-Natal, or the arid stretches of the Karoo. With there being a rough total of 870 different birds being recorded in South Africa, it’s a game of logistics as much as it is of optics.
A Flying Start
We are only twenty days in, but the pace is already frantic. We’ve seen a “flying start” in the truest sense, with several competitors already breezing past the 170-species mark. It seems some of the alumni have been spending more time in the car than in the office lately.
The camaraderie is real, but the competitive streak is wider. I will be providing monthly updates on our progress, keeping a close eye on the leaderboard, the mega-ticks, and the inevitable GPS-verified proof of someone’s desperate 400km dash for a single lifer.
The binoculars are clean, the Bindo app is refreshed, and the hunt is on. Stay tuned for a full update next week at the end of January, where we will reveal the official standings and see who is actually walking the walk.
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