The birds our teachers: John Stott Birding Day 2026

‘It was Jesus Christ himself in the Sermon on the Mount who told us to be birdwatchers,’ John Stott exclaimed in his ‘orni-theological’ treatise, The Birds Our Teachers. A dear friend of A Rocha from its earliest days, John Stott (1921-2011) was at the forefront of bringing creation care to the attention of the global Church. Each year, A Rocha International is pleased to host a day of birding in his honour. Corresponding with Global Big Day, the John Stott Memorial Birding Day supports citizen science efforts to conserve birds worldwide. 

On the fourth annual John Stott Birding Day, teams in 12 countries logged 754 species. That’s roughly 7% of all the bird species in the world, an impressive tally for a relatively low number of countries! From Malaysia, to South Africa, Canada and Australia, 103 birders contributed to this global citizen science effort.  

Special congratulations to the winners of the John Stott Birding Day bird race: the Gardner-Webb ASA chapter! In upstate South Carolina, USA, the Gardner-Webb ASA chapter observed a team record of 116 species. The dedicated group of three woke up at dawn and went back out after dark to record an array of owls, woodpeckers, vireos and many more.  

Keep reading to see the winners of our photo competition! 

Several A Rocha organizations joined this year, including three A Rocha Canada teams in three provinces. On a misty Ontario morning, A Rocha Canada watched Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) bank over the pond and listened to the beautiful call of the Red Breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus). They were also blessed with the first Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) sighting of the spring! In Manitoba, one group gathered in the city and another at A Rocha Canada’s Boreal Ecology Centre. Despite the cold weather, these brave groups spotted 47 species, including the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) and Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus). 

Altogether, A Rocha Kenya had an impressive tally. Splitting into three teams across Watamu, they recorded more than 200 bird species! Among the highlights was spotting five Amur Falcons (Falco amurensis), a migratory species that breeds in China. Another notable sighting was the White-browed Sparrow-Weaver (Plocepasser mahali), a species commonly seen in other parts of Kenya but only rarely recorded along the coast. 

Leanne Wicks of Songlark Studio joined the bird race for the first time from her newly built bird hide in New South Wales, Australia. ‘The Ornithon’ is furnished with a pew from a closed local church, a fitting spot to ‘look at the birds’, as Jesus instructed his followers.  

The United States was well represented, with birding teams from coast to coast and even in Hawai’i. The YWAM Creation Care team in Kona went from the mountain to the sea to spot the birds of Hawai’i Island. The naturalized Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) and the stunning, scarlet-coloured I’iwi (Drepanis coccinea) made an appearance, but the most remarkable sighting was of a critically endangered Palila (Loxioides bailleui), which can only be found on a single slope of the Mauna Kea volcano.

To spot one of Hawai’i’s honey creeper species like the I’iwi and the Palila is incredibly special. At least half of the roughly 140 bird species native to Hawaiʻi have gone extinct. Sightings of the seven honey creeper species remaining on Hawaiʻi Island are rare. Allan described to us his annual search for these precious birds:  

One of our favourite traditions – often reserved for the John Stott Memorial Birding Day – is driving across Saddle Road between our island’s two great volcanoes and hiking out across lava fields into remote kīpuka forests. These are ancient islands of native forest left untouched while lava flows surrounded them centuries ago. 

Entering one of these forests can feel almost otherworldly – something between Narnia and Lothlórien. You move from barren lava into deep moss beneath a ʻōhiʻa and Koa tree canopy, alive with birdsong. If you wait quietly enough, the honeycreepers often come to you. 

The ʻIʻiwi in particular is unforgettable: brilliant scarlet plumage that almost disappears among the red lehua blossoms of the ʻōhiʻa trees they feed upon, along with a long, curved bill exquisitely adapted to native flowers. 

Over on the West Coast, Autumn and her one-year-old daughter Lydia went out for a day of urban birding in Pasadena, California. The birds led them to interesting sightings: following an Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), they spotted a magnificent granary in a distant palm tree. Woodpeckers store their acorns here, moving them every few days to hide them from opportunistic squirrels. Of course, they also encountered several of the legendary Yellow-headed Amazons (Amazona oratrix), an exotic parrot species which has been eliminated from much of its home range due to poaching. A thriving (and rather loud) population can be heard across Pasadena. 

Enormous thanks to everyone who competed in the bird race, shared beautiful images in the photo competition, and joined us in celebrating John Stott and the birds he loved so much. We will see you next year!