arte-sin-logosWORLD MIGRATORY BIRD FESTIVAL


Osa Birds, together with SINAC-ACOSA, Tropical Wings, our sister organization, and a variety of local partners hosts the World Migratory Bird Day Festival (WMBD) on the Osa Peninsula. The festival is held in Puerto Jimenez on the first Saturday in March with a full day event of games, talks, booths, music, food and activities.

Our Osa migratory bird day festival is one of many Environment for the Americas annual WMBD festival events held annually throughout the Americas. It is generally held in the springtime in North America in celebration of Neotropical migrants return to their breeding grounds, and during the autumn months in the Caribbean in celebration of Neotropical migratory birds return for the winter. Early March on the Osa is a beautiful time when all birds are active; resident birds are busy breeding and migratory birds are busy feeding and flocking up for the long journey north. The Osa festival is therefore held as a “send-off” for these birds on their way back to breed.

The festival serves to bring together children and adults from Puerto Jimenez and the Osa Península to:
1. Celebrate migratory birds and their conservation, raising awareness and knowledge in an entertaining way among local communities, organizations, and businesses.
2. Raise awareness in communities in the US and Costa Rica of the global linkages necessary for the conservation of migratory birds.  Through the NPS/SINAC Sister Parks partnership art and education initiatives we seek to promote an understanding of Neotropical migratory bird populations that both regions share, and habitats that birds rely on during two distinct periods of their life cycle.

The festival will feature activities for kids such as feather mask making, painting, and a theater puppet show, as well as informational presentations on bird migration and life cycles, and bird walks around local gardens to show migratory birds in their over-wintering habitat. Kids will learn ways to identify all birds, both migrants, and residents and understand how to protect birds in their own backyards. All the while people will be enjoying great food and music, local art vendors and stands from local conservation organizations.

 

 

PAST ART & PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT and CONTEST Winners

Kids and adults alike are encouraged to enter their bird photographs into our photo contest.  All photos will be on exhibit and winners chosen the day of the festival.

Photo contest winners 2014

2014: From Left Puerto Jimenez Net, Ute, Terri Peterson

 

2015: From left; Puerto Jimenez Net, Manuel Sanchez, Catalina Mora.

2015: From left; Puerto Jimenez Net, Manuel Sanchez, Catalina Mora.

 

2016: From left; Arnaldo Gonzalez Flores, Minor Hidalgo, Puerto Jimenez Net, Catalina Mora.

2016: From left; Arnaldo Gonzalez Flores, Minor Hidalgo, Puerto Jimenez Net, Catalina Mora.

 

Education

As a strong educational component to the World Migratory Bird Day Festival we are working with 5th and 6th grade classes from five elementary schools located throughout the Osa Peninsula to teach kids about migratory birds; the differences between resident and migratory birds, the Neotropical migratory bird life cycle, the “shared bird” concept, and avian conservation.

The kids are involved in classroom presentations, identification and awareness of migratory birds in their own home and school environments, and take part in art projects which will allow them to produce any kind of painting or drawing that showcases migratory birds and their behaviors. Art will be presented along with other photographic and artworks at the WMBD festival and exchanged with kids in US schools.  For more information on WMBC and yearly focal themes please visit their site.

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