Why the caged birdwatchers sing: raising awareness during confinement

By Jeremy Herry

How do you raise awareness on the importance to protect birds, beautiful winged creatures of the outdoors, when everyone is staying inside?

Across the map, birdwatching events and bird fairs have been cancelled, and nature reserves have been closed, but that hasn’t stopped BirdLife partners from keeping birds in the spotlight. Throughout Europe and Central Asia, they have shown innovation and creativity to bring our feathered friends to people’s eyes, ears and hearts. Here’s a sample of what they’re doing.

Let’s start with activity that’s been popular on many windowsills: home birdwatching! Even people who had never tried birdwatching before have taken up this fun and educational activity – and BirdLife partners have been providing the tools to do so from your window. In Italy, Turkey, Austria, and Croatia and elsewhere, our partners have been driving a growing home-birdwatching movement in their countries. In Montenegro, our partner CZIP is collecting citizens’ confinement photos of migratory birds to share on their facebook page, and our French partner, LPO, organised a nationwide garden bird census! Would you like to know more about the birds you see? You may want to use the very handy online bird identifier, produced by our British partner RSPB. You can also watch birds on your screen: several partners have set up livestreaming services to watch birds. On CZIP’s website, you can watch a stork nest in real time!

Read more from original source:

https://www.birdlife.org/europe-and-central-asia/news/why-caged-birdwatchers-sing-raising-awareness-during-confinement?