The Mindful Birding Project presents a new compilation of ethical birding guidelines on its website as a resource for birdwatchers as well as for organizations that will be drafting new guidelines or updating their existing ethical birding guidelines. The compilation is the result of an extensive online search for ethical birding guidelines used by organizations, birding festivals, and nature tour operators from around the world.

Additionally, the Mindful Birding Project offers cash awards to birding festivals that demonstrate improved or superior ethical birding guidelines, beginning with festivals occurring in California, Oregon, and Washington. Each year tens of thousands of birdwatchers participate in birdwatching field trips at bird festivals. The Mindful Birding Project, by rewarding those festivals that provide clear guidance on how birders can achieve safe and gratifying experiences without altering the ability of birds to behave naturally, is helping to increase awareness of ethical birding behavior throughout the birding community. To date, Mindful Birding has recognized six West Coast festivals with the Mindful Birding Award for Adopting Ethical Birding Guidelines.

Mindful Birding is a charitable project of the Morrissey Family Foundation that has three goals: (1) increase awareness among birders of ethical birding guidelines, (2) increase the conservation contributions from America's 47 million birdwatchers, and (3) encourage a practice of mindfulness among birders. To learn more about Mindful Birding, view past award recipients, and browse ethical birding guidelines, visit our website:www.mindfulbirding.org

This project is possible thanks to those agencies, organizations, businesses, and individuals who have written and made available their own ethical birding guidelines. We are especially grateful to the American Birding Association, whose thorough ethical guidelines are widely respected and frequently referenced by the greater birdwatching community.