The Green Heron is this year's ABA Bird of the Year and was announced in both English and Spanish posts by the ABA. To me, the bird chosen was a homerun, Green Heron's are beautiful and smart birds that fun to watch and observe. The fact that the announcement was in Spanish meant a lot to me as well on a variety of levels.
Any attempt to reach out to underrepresented groups means a lot to me and when its my own group, I have a strong investment in those efforts. Reaching out to Latino communities can really provide a lot to the birding community across North America. If for no other reason that our beloved birds need help with conservation across Latin America and having a strong Latino community in the US will help those efforts. Another blogger/birder post about the rules for the Black Birder has made quite a stir in some birding circles and has been ignored in others. Its hard to see how our social issues affect our feathered friends, but its clear to me that if we don't reach out to new groups and new birders, our society will be poorer for it and our birds will lose human defenders. For these reasons, I hope we can all agree that while a good birder is a good birder, we'll all be better birders if there are more of us around. Until the next time... get out and go birding!
A Green Heron on a muddy bank
He was hoping I didn't see him
Wild Bird Wednesday - Link here
Green Heron @ All About Birds - Link here
2015 Bird of the Year - Link here
