We all know that birding during the summer months in Florida can be challenging. Excessive heat, energy-sapping humidity, unpredictable weather, and the (what seems like) millions of mosquitoes can dissuade any birder from venturing outside to find cool birds. But some of our area’s most interesting bird sightings have occurred during the summer months. It’s a great time to spot Bobwhite Quail, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Black-necked Stilts, Hudsonian Whimbrels, and nesting Least and Black Terns, to name just a few.

Enter the June Challenge! The June Challenge is a friendly competition designed to keep us birding through the summer heat while non-birders retreat indoors and miss all the fun. The aim of the competition is for individual contestants to see as many bird species as possible within the boundaries of their county between June 1st and June 30th.

The rules are simple: try to see (heard-only birds don’t count for the challenge) as many different bird species in your home county as you can during the month of June. (Doing more than one county is permissible, but each must be reported separately.) At the end of the month, report your species totals on the June Challenge website, where you can see the results a few weeks later.

The fun starts June 1st, so get outside and go birding!