The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP) is sponsoring the the 2nd Philippine Bird Festival themed “Endemik: Dito Lang sa Pinas” to focus attention on conserving endemic bird species of the Philippines, the bird watching hobby and responsible appreciation of nature.
The Philippine Bird Festival, the only one of its kind in the country, will be held on September 22 and 23 at the Crossroad 77 Convenarium, Mother Ignacia Avenue corner Scout Reyes Street in Quezon City.
The Bird Festival will feature exhibits by the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines and 14
participating conservation groups and social development foundations, screenings of the award winning entries of the 2006 Moonrise Film Festival,free public lectures on bird watching and nature conservation, merchandise and an arts activity center for the young and the young at heart.
WBCP members and Bird Festival Committee chair Alice Villa-Real said the project hopes to raise the bar of awareness about the unique bird life of the islands, promote public interest in conservation and encourage the creation of more urban parks and green spaces.
Villa-Real said there are more than 570 species of birds in the Philippines,no fewer than 180 species are found only in the archipelago. “The endemic birds include the Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker and the White-Eared Brown Dove which are present in a number of parks and wooded areas in the core of Metro Manila,” she added.
Similar events take place throughout the world each year, attracting large numbers of bird watchers, scientists and nature enthusiasts. In Asia, some of the well-known bird watching events are Malaysia’s Fraser’s Hill International Bird Race and the Singapore Bird Race and the annual Taipei International Birdwatching Fair in Taiwan.
The idea for a Philippine Bird Festival was conceived by local bird watching hobbyists in 2005 and has received support and encouragement from conservation organizations and the business sector since.
This year’s participating exhibitors include: Conservation International,WWF-Philippines, Philippine Eagle Foundation, Katala Foundation, Haribon Foundation, Isla Biodiversity Conservation, Polillo Island Biodiversity Conservation, the Center for Environmental
Awareness and Education (CEAE), the Children’s Environmental Awareness and Action
Foundation (CEAAF), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-NCR, the Protected Areas & Wildlife Bureau, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Winner Foundation, Ecorescue Volunteers, Happy Earth, Inc. and the Figaro Foundation.
Contact:
Alice Villa-Real 0917-5397861, pathway93@yahoo.com
Michael Lu 0926-6902972, myckle@thenet.ph
Ellen, where is the bird that is always perched by your window?
If you tap it, Mr. Alitaptap, you shall see it. Anyway Ms. Ellen, I don’t think the above topic attracts much interest from most readers. It took a while from someone to comment.
Perhaps if you publish or post something about Bird Flu, then it might sell.
Nelson, I post items in this blog which I feel would help make life in this world worth living, as the title of this blog says.
It doesn’t matter if a post elicits comment or now. It’s not a popularity contest.
What I want is for readers to have choices.
Unfortunately, the readers’ choice is still politics and how to get rid of Gloria and her family. See how many made comments on this subject? It’s only aliptaptap and me. But I agree, we need a different one for a change.
actually this is an interesting topic since it is on conservation. i was in davao last christmas and was able to visit some of the remnants of the monkey eating eagle, and saw for myself how unhappy these birds are when imprisoned. unfortunately we were told that the grandfather after being set loose did not survive the forest and died when it mistook electrical lines as branches of trees.
i forgot to tell what interested me. we were told that this eagle was the father of all the others since he was the prettiest and all the female birds liked him to be the father of their children but this eagle was also choosy and took only the pretty ones.
Well, I may as well join the fun and discuss this Philippine Eagle. I can say that this Bird is soon to be extinct. Unless the government do something to preserve it, time will come we won’t see any Philippine Eagle. It’s not only the Eagle, but the Philippine monkey and other animals that can only be found in the Philippines.
That’s a nice story on the Philippine eagle, Norpil.
In birdwatching, you also become environmentalists. The sanctuary of birds are trees and forests.
Here in the Philippines, we have a low awareness on the need to take care of our environment. Perhaps it’s because we are more concerned of surviving.What we don’t realize is that, if we don’t take care of our environment, and Mother Nature gets mad at us, we will all perish.
We have seen these tragedy year in and year out. The Ormoc floods, the Quezon floods, etc. etc. We don’t seem to learn our lesson.
i believe that the first who should be concerned about the environment is the govt. this is so at least in the scandinavian countries, but i noticed in my trips home that there is little concern from the govt people. i donot know now but some 30 years ago, most of those who have concessions in our forests are lawmakers themselves.