There seems to be a lot of birding competitions springing up around the world. I have previously posted about one in Peru. This one in Israel is in its second year and is drawing contestants from all over the world. I was especially pleased to see the funds raised by the competition go to support conservation!
James Currie (who has the best job in the world) hosts the Birding Adventure series.
They also have a more traditional birding excursion video for those who are not so competitive!
Since we have the Olympics going on at this time I thought it might be fun to see if birding would make a good Olympic sport. I blogged about this Birding Rally Challenge last year so it’s nice to see how it turned out. Birding Adventures followed one team as they logged as many birds as possible. You’ll notice that they flew on One World member LAN for domestic sectors which is an excellent use of British Airways Avios at 4500 miles per sector. Would you like to take up the challenge? Start at the gateway of Lima and grab a North-South America award!
Yay or nay-do birding competitions help or hinder eco-tourism? I think most birders have at least heard of (if not seen) the movie, “The Big Year”. If not, you can get it from Amazon.com (my link).
It’s an entertaining film but not my style at all. It just seemed that all they wanted to do was tick as many birds off a list as possible and beat other birders. They were all rushing around, tripping over each other and not taking the time to appreciate the birds.
And now there is a new competition in Peru. Part of it takes place in the Tambopata National Reserve so you can see my posts on how to get there. Birding Adventures has the video on YouTube. Interestingly, there are no women on any of the teams, I wonder why? I see plenty of female birders at eco-lodges. It did seem that the teams spread out so they weren’t all rushing around the same area at the same time and they did find some fantastic birds as you can see by the video. The men in the video all seem to be very experienced birders.
What are your opinions of birding as a competitive sport? Do you think it helps people become better birders and see more birds? Or do you think it gets people too focused on the competition when they should be appreciating nature? Please comment below!