Conservation through Birding

Birding is the fastest-growing outdoor activity in America, yet it is amazingly ineffective in articulating its own interests. It is both a pastime that revels in the wonder of some of the earth's most awe-inspiring creatures, while at the same time stands witness as these marvelous birds and their habitats decline.

Birding is a pastime with a split personality: its historic roots embedded in the very birth of the American conservation movement, while many of its most-avid devotees currently regarding conservation as a distraction to avian enjoyment.

What concerned birders must do for our pastime and for the birds and their habitats is inspire the burgeoning mass of newly interested birders and naturephiles to embrace closely related conservation concerns.

We need a new principled center for birding and conservation -- a conceptual yet active center, combining elements of thought and activity. It should include the uninitiated, presenting birding as a creative window to the entire natural world. It assumes a responsibility to encourage education and training of birders at all levels.

We are experiencing a phenomenal growth of birding interest -- multiple publications, birding trails, festivals, etc. We have not witnessed such interest in our lifetime. At the same time scores of species of Neotropical migrant birds have been steadily declining.

We have a responsibility now to the recreation and to the resource (birding and birds) to make sure that doesn't happen, that the wave doesn't pass before we make a long-lasting bird conservation impact.

CTB is the place to begin discussing the strategies for getting the inexperienced birding sectors to step forward from recognition to conservation.

Check the web pages at for our intentions, goals, and action items.