Early Worm Gets the Bird

When we first learned about Quentin and Owen's birding venture, Early Worm Gets the Bird, we were immediately captivated by their enthusiasm, spirit of adventure, and dry sense of humor. The best thing to happen to birding since eBird? It's hard to deny that they interject a level of excitement into a past time that few people even know exist. We're excited that these guys are helping to revitalize the hobby and showing the world that there's a lot of fun to be had while looking for birds!

"Our quest to see as many birds as possible within 365 days - We know next to nothing about birds, their whereabouts, or birding culture."

-Owen & Quentin, Early Worm Gets the Bird

If this Journal post marks your introduction to Early Worm, here's a quick backstory. Owen and Quentin, two brothers who enjoyed exploring the natural world, started with little knowledge beyond a book on world birds and childhood exploits of throwing rocks at Canada Geese. Then one day they thought how ridiculous it would be if they could learn all of the birds in that bird book. Their idea to embark on a year-long quest to observe as many bird species as possible was born from this whimsical thought and quickly blossomed into a reality. What better way to spend a year and their savings than to drop everything and dedicate a whole year finding birds around the country. Thus, Early Worm Gets the Bird was born. A year later and 579 birds later, the brothers can comfortably say they successfully completed an impressive "Big Year" of birding. 

Curious about their adventure, we sent them a list of questions. Check out the Maven Journal video below to get a behind the scenes look at how the year went down. 

Brimming with ambition after their impressive year, the guys have decided that they're not finished yet. Their next goal: conquering the global birding scene. Inspired by Quentin's unique illustrations throughout their Big Year, we thought what better way to help them out than to collaborate on a t-shirt and send them all the profits to help fund their global takeover. Quentin's quirky design celebrates bird nerds watching birds and is aptly named "The Nerders Tee" - a fun description of "bird nerds" being watched by their feathered friends. All profits from this shirt will support their future birding expeditions, fueling their global take over. 

GRAB YOURS NOW!

If you missed following along and want to catch up, head over to @earlyworm_getsthebird  to binge the entire season. And while you're at it, join the Early Worm Gets the Bird Patreon to help fund the next chapter in their world tour birding takeover.