GreenBirding - Home

What is Green Birding?

• You are a birder, a lister, a twitcher, a watcher, a naturalist
  

• You are increasingly conscious of the effect the pursuit of your interests has on the environment – you suspect you drive/fly too much, too often and too far for birds

• You would like to know the birds of your local patch in greater depth – wherever that is on the planet

• You are self-powered and can walk, cycle, paddle, row or ride

• Then, ipso facto, you are a GreenBirder

In our understandable desire to see far away wild creatures in their natural habitats we have all expended energy and added to greenhouse gas emissions over the years. Increasingly, in a world where climate change is happening before our eyes, a lot of birders now find that this is no longer as acceptable as it once was. By spending more time locally and travelling by human-power alone, we can minimise our effects on the environment and reduce our carbon footprints while really coming to know and appreciate the birds and other lives we live with and amongst.

If you do nothing else, please register your name on this site to lend weight to our campaign to spread this idea amongst the birding community.  If you wish, you can tell us something about yourself in the forum section of the site where you can also open and take part in discussions on any relevant topics.

GreenBirding has three themes:

We do hope you will want to join us and keep on GreenBirding in future years. We look forward to sharing experiences and helping other birders to join us in doing our little bit for the planet – and its birds.  Check the other sections of this website for the methods, the helpful tips and the experiences of other greenbirders. 

• Green Listing

Keeping annual and life lists of birds seen near where we live/work without resorting to the internal combustion engine in seeking them out.

• Patch birding - promoting the idea of in-depth, local birding.

Encouraging people to get to know what is under their noses, studying birds throughout the year and collecting data for citizen science enterprises such as eBird.

• Conservation

Working to conserve bird habitats and crating spaces in the world for birds to live.

BIGBY is a handy acronym derived from Big Green Big Year that was floated by a group of Montreal birders in 2008.  Language shifts and already it has become simply a widely used shorthand word for GreenBirding in all its shapes. The original bigbyists have put this site together to promote what a British birder recently called “carbonless twitching” and to provide a forum for exchanging experiences and ideas.  By spreading the idea of greenbirding we hope to draw others into the fold.

GreenBirders (Bigbyists) already share their experiences, by blogs and emails.  Most of them have made it abundantly clear that while everyone is having a lot of fun and some excellent birding keeping their annual Bigby lists, they have found that, despite initial scepticism, there is a lot more fascinating birding (and wildlife watching in general) to be done on our own doorsteps than many of us had suspected. We so easily overlook what is under our noses while we were heading over the hills and far away in a cloud of exhaust fumes.

We are realists. By itself local, carbon-neutral birding will not solve the planet's climate problems but it does serve to focus us on something practical that we can all do to help and reminds us of our responsibilities. It has unveiled a wealth of unsuspectedly good birding on our home patches ... in at least fifteen different countries and on five continents that we know of.

GreenBirding is NOT a membership organisation in the normal way as we don't ask any fees, nor will we do so. No fees, no pressure. By "joining" GreenBirding though you will be registering your commitment to and interest in the various activities that go to make up a GreenBirder.  Please add your name to the community. 

WE hope that this site will provide the meeting place where birders of all traditions and nationalities can at least say “here am I and I care”.

By sharing experiences, we can encourage each other, spread the word and draw other birders into our community.  Knowing that there are already hundreds and hundreds of birders who think like you do will help others to join us – one day, who knows, self-powered birding will be what every birder does for most of the year.

(PS: we have already been asked why greenbirding.ca and not greenbirding.com?  Simply because the site owners live in Canada (.ca) and because the .com option has been claimed by a speculative company only too happy sell its use to us … we did not feel inclined to pay.)

Join the community.