San Diego Bird Festival Receives a 2016 Mindful Birding Award

San Diego Audubon Society is the recipient of a 2016 Mindful Birding Award for its efforts to promote ethical birding guidelines and bird conservation through its San Diego Bird Festival that will be held from March 3rd – 6th, 2016.

The San Diego Bird Festival has demonstrated a commitment to ethical birdwatching behavior by adopting and adhering to a code of birding ethics. The festival distributes its code of ethics to field trip leaders and attendees to provide guidance on how birders can achieve safe and gratifying birdwatching experiences without altering the ability of birds to behave naturally. Additionally, the event publishes its ethics online for a wide distribution.

The San Diego Bird Festival offers a variety of birdwatching field trips that will connect participants to nature through the splendor of birds. By strengthening participants’ connections to nature, and by providing guidance on ethical birding and nature conservation, the San Diego Bird Festival is serving as a model for other birding festivals and helping attendees become even stronger messengers for and supporters of conservation for birds and people.

Mindful Birding is a charitable project of the Morrissey Family Foundation that presents ethical birding guidelines from around the world, and offers awards to birding festivals that demonstrate improved or superior ethics. The project has three goals: (1) increase awareness among birders of ethical birding guidelines, (2) increase the conservation contributions from America's birdwatchers, and (3) encourage a practice of mindfulness among birders.