You don’t need a sabbatical for a Big Year — just a department and a plan.

Big Years have a reputation: six-figure travel budgets, months away from work. Jeisson Zamudio and Richard Johnston are rewriting that. In 2026, they set out to see as many bird species as possible in a single Colombian department — Valle del Cauca — without stepping away from their everyday lives.

Join them for a behind-the-scenes look at how they planned the challenge, the logistics of chasing birds on weekends and lunch breaks, and the surprises that turned a birding goal into something bigger: a celebration of local guides, farmers, businesses, and communities working to protect the species they came to find — like the Long-wattled Umbrellabird, the Multicolored Tanager, and the Five-colored Barbet.

They are documenting their adventure on video and social media, and they’re sharing what they learned so you can plan your own — no plane ticket to the Amazon required.

Hopefully, this webinar inspires you to start planning your 2027 adventure — wherever you live.

Jeisson Zamudio joined Manomet’s Flyway Program in October 2023 as the Pacific South America Coordinator to support the implementation of the Pacific Americas Shorebird Conservation Strategy in Chile, Perú, Ecuador, and Colombia by building effective partnerships with local stakeholders and identifying linkages with national shorebird conservation plans in these countries.

Jeisson is a Colombian biologist from the Universidad del Valle who worked for more than 15 years with Asociación Calidris on various projects with shorebirds, seabirds, and endangered bird species in the Andes.

Richard Johnston is a Colombian biologist from Universidad del Valle with more than 20 years of experience in bird conservation, community science, and coastal ecology. Throughout his career, he has led and supported research, monitoring, conservation planning, and participatory science initiatives across Latin America, with a particular focus on shorebirds and migratory birds. He holds a Ph.D. in Biology from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and currently serves as Chair of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group.

Richard joined Audubon as Senior Coordinator of Community Science for Latin America and the Caribbean, where he supports the expansion and strengthening of the Christmas Bird Count and Great Backyard Bird Count across the region by fostering partnerships and engaging organizations and communities in bird conservation and biodiversity monitoring.