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((airplane))
[Man] Big Bird in the sky.
[Cullen] These are the Least Sandpipers that are calling right here.
((birds on water))
[Julia Greggory] Uh, the Tweeting Chats.
[Robert Ramirez] Our team name is the Chatting Tweets.
((laughter))
[Lydia] It's the Tweeting Chats!
[Robert] The Tweeting Chats.
((laughter))
[Cullen Hanks] I believe we are the Tweeting Chats.
[Robert] They're so chatty. And then they're tweeting.
[Lydia] I'm Facebooking man! [Shelly Plante -- Nature Tourism Manager,
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department] Today we're out looking at a Big Sit team
for the Great Texas Birding Classic. They are birding from a 17-foot diameter circle
for up to 24 hours on a single day and seeing as many species they can identify by sight
or sound. ((bird call))
[Narration] The Big Sit is just one way to compete in North America's largest birding
tournament. The competition lasts for an entire month throughout the state of Texas. And while
it's the people who are having fun, it's the birds that benefit.
((Carolina Wren call))
[Cullen] Did you get the Carolina Wren?
[Shelly] The Big Sit is actually a great tournament
for people that are not great birders.
[Robert] I am an extreme novice birder.
[Shelly] Only one person has to identify every single
species for it to count.
[Cullen Hanks -- Birder, Tweeting Chats] We have some Wilson's Phalarope. We still
have some winter birds that are hanging out like the Shoveler and we have some ruddy ducks,
a number of pectoral sandpipers ... of course there's plenty of coots. Generally plenty
of coots here at Hornsby Bend.
((birds on a wire))
[Cullen] Swallows!
[Narration] And though the competition is called The Big
Sit, there's not a lot of sitting with this team.
[Julia] I got the Franklin Gull. Oh look they're going
to land!
[Robert Ramirez -- Tweeting Chats] This group is great and they're having a good
time. And you can tell when they start getting serious, they start quieting down a little
bit.
[Shelly] Birds are everywhere. Texas is right in the
middle of three different flyways. And so the entire state of Texas gets an amazing
migration of birds that are coming from Central and South America up through Texas to the
northern states and Canada. We have over 630 birds in the state of Texas, which is one
of the top counts for the entire United States.
[Tom Harvey looking at bird book and app on phone]
This is clearly more portable than this. Plus this can play the call of the bird sound.
[Narration] Out of the 58 teams that registered for the
17th annual Great Texas Birding Classic, 20 of them signed up for The Big Sit competition.
[Louie] The Yellow Breasted Chat.
[Narration] And even though they did not find their mascot
today.
((Tweet, tweet))
[Narration] The Tweeting Chats came in first in their
category.
((Cullen making owl sound))
[Naration] Thanks to one ringer....
[Group] One, two, three!
[Narration] And the rest of the team that was willing...
to sit ....it out.
[Woman] We just missed the painted Bunting!
[Narration] For Texas Parks and Wildlife, this is Abe
Moore.