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2025 Virginia Birding Classic Results

The 2025 Virginia Birding Classic results are in! The 2nd year of this event was an amazing success, thanks to all the teams that scoured the Commonwealth for as many species as they could find on public lands in 24 hours. Participants identified more than 220 species during the competition!

Cardinal Cup:

We have an exciting rivalry taking shape! The Birdbrains were last years’ 2nd place team behind The Twitchers, but they narrowly edged out the Twitchers this year to take the 2025 Cardinal Cup!

The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) wishes congratulations to the winners of the Cardinal Cup…

1st Place: 124 species

  • The Birdbrains: Chopper Dawson, Ewa Greene, Todd Dixon, and Paul Bedell

2nd Place: 121 species

  • The Twitchers: June McDaniels and Andrew Baldelli

3rd Place: 116 species

  • Team VA Museum of Natural History: Joe Keiper, Jonathan Martin, Kal Ivanov, Collin VanBuren

The Big Sit:

The inaugural Big Sit competition category was a great success, with teams posting up for the day all across the Commonwealth!

1st Place: 71 species

  • Riverbank Swallows: Brian Taber, Nancy Barnhart, and Deborah Humphries

2nd Place: 52 species

  • The Downy WoodpeckeRs: Stacey Brown, Kelsey Steenburgh, Mallory White, Steve Living, Michelle Goldman, Ben Goldman, Jack Goldman, and Max Goldman.

3rd Place: 21 species

  • Holston River Virginia Master Naturalist: Monica Hoel, Sandy Chambers, Jude Colt, Susan Fleming, Robin Small, Terri Adkinds, Rebecca Currin, and Tanya Hall

Congratulations to this year’s winners, to all the participating teams, and to the Virginia Outdoor Grant Program, which will receive all the proceeds from the event! The DWR would like to thank our partners in the Virginia Birding Classic: the Virginia Department of Forestry, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Virginia Society of Ornithology, and Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory.