Birding Cup

Everyone is invited to join the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia and Mountaineer Audubon for the 7th annual Morgantown Birding Cup, which will be held from 6pm on Friday, May 15, to 6pm on Saturday, May 16, 2026. This is a friendly competition; the goal is for families, friends, and individuals to have fun and count all the bird species that they encounter during this 24-hour period.

We offer two categories: “at-home” and “at-large.” Participants in the at-home category should travel only within walking or non-motorized-travel distance from where they live; participants in the at-large category can travel and count bird species in any (or all) of the five West Virginia counties in Mountaineer Audubon’s region: Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, and Taylor.

A Morgantown Bird Cup “team” can have as many as six members or as few as one. (But if you’re a family with more than six members and you all want to be on the same team, that’s fine!) Members of a team must stay together when they’re counting, and for a bird to “count,” at least half of a team’s members must see it. Gathering at the residence of one group member and walking from there is acceptable for the at-home category. Teams should start counting bird species at 6pm on Friday, May 15, and stop counting at 6pm on Saturday, May 16. We will hold an in-person count party at the ACCA’s Outdoor Classroom, 217 Morgan Hill Road, Morgantown, WV, 26508 (park in the large gravel lot on the left–look for signs.)

Please email your bird list, including a total species count, to Katie no later than 6:30pm on May 15 or deliver your list in-person to the count party by 6:30pm. You can keep your list on eBird.org or using another method of your choosing. By submitting your list to eBird, you will also be participating in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s global citizen-science initiative.

Past Morgantown Birding Cup Winners:

2025:
At-Large:
First Place: The Flying Checkerboards
Second Place: The Barretts

At-Home:
First Place: Zealon Wight-Maier
Second Place: The American Robinsons

2024:
At-Large:
First Place: Just Winging It
Second Place: The Peregrine Fallons
Third Place: The Barretts

At-Home:
First Place: The Downsy Woodpeckers
Second Place: The American Robinsons
Third Place: Zealon Wight-Maier

2023:
At-Large:
First Place: The RUBL Alliance
Second Place: The Defenders
Third Place: The Hemlock Hermits

First Place: The Downsy Woodpeckers
Second Place: The American Robinsons
Third Place: The Bird Whisperer

2022:
First Place (at large): Mike Mosser & Kyle Klotz
First Place (at home): Derek Courtney & Hannah Clipp

2021:
First Place, Orion Metheny (82 species)
Second Place, Zealon Wight-Maier (78 species)
Third Place, The Hemlock Sherlocks, aka LeJay & the Blue Jays (74 species)
Fourth Place, The Downsy Woodpeckers (73 species)

2020:
First Place, Hannah Clipp & Derek Courtney (90 species)
Second Place, Mollee Brown (84 species)
Third Place, LeJay & Helen Ann Graffious & Amy Hill (65 species)