In 2024, Tarik Shahzad broke the Cook County Big Year birding record by logging 294 unique bird species including the first-ever confirmed sighting of a Short-tailed Shearwater in Illinois – all while working full-time as an environmental policy advocate for The Nature Conservancy. The quest took him all over the county and to all sorts of settings, from forest preserves, city parks, lakeside sanctuaries, a cemetery and a retention pond behind a CVS to a boat on Lake Michigan where he spotted a Long-tailed Jaeger. Tarik will share the highlights of his effort, the motivation behind it, and how it connects to his concerns over declining bird populations.