 SPNL
Children creating a huge bird wall painting as part of Lebanon's celebration of the 2004 World Bird Festival
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World Bird Festival makes and breaks records
10-12-2004
The bird races that accompanied this year's World Bird Festival broke records – and established new species records for participating nations.
The 2004 World Bird Festival, Connecting people with nature, took place throughout October right across the globe.
In El Salvador, 21 people observed a total of 296 species in a single weekend, more than 55% of the total list for the country. One team was joined by a birder from Texas, just a two-hour flight away. SalvaNATURA (BirdLife in El Salvador) hopes more birders from the USA will join the bird-a-thon next October. During the festival, ringing and monitoring teams found a Swainson's Warbler Limnothlypis swainsonii, a new species for El Salvador. Another new species, White-bellied Emerald Amazilia candida, unfortunately killed itself by flying into SalvaNATURA’s office window.
The Ugandan race involved sites like Makerere University, Bahai Temple, Mabamba and Lutembe Bays, Lake Nabugabo, Mabira, Ziika and Mpanga Forest Reserves, Lake Mburo, Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi Impenetrable National Parks. Schoolchildren had their version of a bird race, compiling a list of birds seen on their school compound.
Lebanon's celebration of the World Bird Festival centred on the IBA of Ebel es-Saki, a remote, ancient village in the hills of South Lebanon. Over 600 outside visitors made the long trek, much to the delight of the organisers, SPNL (BirdLife in Lebanon). There were guided birdwatching tours around Ebel's newly declared Community Reserve (the 'Hema'), a no-shooting zone on a forested hill-top which is a perfect watchpoint for the soaring birds such as pelicans, storks and raptors that pass overhead, making the Hema an internationally important migration bottleneck site.
In Europe, more than 17,000 people observed 3.3 million birds over two days. Nearly 20,000 Cranes were recorded along the coasts of the Baltic States. The event was organised by BSPB (BirdLife in Bulgaria), and the opening ceremony was conducted by the UK ambassador to Bulgaria, who inaugurated a well built by BSPB and dedicated to the people of Capitan Petko Voivoda Village (Sakar Mountain IBA) for their contribution to the preservation of a pair of Imperial Eagles.