OfficialArtwork_2014MountainBirdFestival_GaryBloomfield
Birding festivals are growing in popularity across the world, and increasingly these community events are becoming "eBird Festivals." eBird festivals use eBird to track the many birds seen on the field trips offered during these events celebrating birds and birding. eBird Festivals also provide outreach, promoting the use of eBird by helping festival attendees set up their own eBird accounts and by providing information about the powerful data entry and exploration tools offered by eBird. By integrating eBird within festival activities these eBird Festivals are building on a significant opportunity for the birding community to contribute to the science that drives conservation worldwide.

Klamath Bird Observatory, a scientific non-profit organization that achieves bird and habitat conservation in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the ranges of the migratory birds of the region, is hosting its inaugural Mountain Bird Festival in Ashland, Oregon in late May of this year. This eBird Festival places conservation front and center, and celebrates mountain bird specialties of the region, such as Great Gray Owl, White-headed Woodpecker, Lewis's Woodpecker, Hermit Warbler, Dusky Flycatcher, and Calliope Hummingbird. Registration is open and field trip spaces are still available; visit the Mountain Bird Festival website (http://www.klamathbird.org/) to learn more and to register.

The Mountain Bird Festival advances bird conservation in three concrete ways. First, each festival attendee receives a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (a.k.a. the Duck Stamp) purchased with a portion of their registration fee. The Federal Duck Stamp Program is considered one of the most successful conservation programs ever; proceeds from stamp sales are used to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection within the National Wildlife Refuge System. More than 6 million acres of strategic wetland habitat have been preserved through this program over the last 80 years.

Read more at: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/mbf_2014/