5th Philippine Bird Celebration Takes Off In Balanga City On Oct. 9
Bird watchers and nature enthusiasts are expected to flock to this city as the 5th Philippine Bird Festival, the country’s largest celebration of diversity and bird lore awareness, is set to take off on October 9.
Balanga City holds the Philippine record for welcoming the largest concentration of wintering shorebirds from the Asian mainland and Japan.
The festival will mark the arrival from the Asian mainland and Japan of wintering shorebirds with the official dedication of the Balanga Nature and Wetland Park, the first protected wetland park in the whole Manila Bay area.
With the theme Ibong Dayo, Kaibigan Tayo! (The Migrant Birds: Our Friends), this year’s bird festival aims to drum up public support for the conservation and awareness of the Balanga wetlands where more than 15,000 individual birds were on record during the Asian Waterbird Census in January.
According to the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP), the country’s foremost bird watching society and organizer of the Philippine Bird Festival, the wetlands of Puerto Rivas in Balanga City attract one of the largest concentration of migrant shorebirds and waterfowl anywhere in the Philippines creating interest in Philippine birdwatching.
“The Balanga wetlands always lands in the country’s top 5 wetlands with the most number of wintering water birds, which included Candaba Marsh in Pampanga and Olango Island in Cebu,” WBCP president Michael Lu said.
He said these three sites are in the Asian flyway, but the Balanga wetlands located across the Bay from Metro Manila continues to be a surprise.
“We hope to bring attention to the need to conserve the entire coastline and waters of Manila bay,” Lu said.
He also said the Balanga wetlands are being promoted as a bird watching destination by the Adventure Philippine campaign of the Department of Tourism and the Recreational Outdoor Exchange.
Bird Festival Committee chair Alice Villa-Real said the annual event hopes to raise the bar of information about the bird life of the islands, promote public interest in conservation and encourage the creation of more public green spaces.
Villa-Real said there are more than 600 species of birds in the Philippines, with no fewer than 200 which are found only in the archipelago.
She said this year’s Bird Festival will open with the dedication ceremony at the Balanga Nature and Wetland Park in Tortugas, followed by street dancing by local troupes along the route to the new plaza Mayor de Balanga.
She also said there will be exhibition of bird photos, lectures and film screenings at the People’s Center in the capitol grounds, which will be open to the public free of charge.
Organizers said an activity center featuring bird-themed games, arts and crafts and face painting will be on tap for the young and the young at heart.
She said the provincial government will also simultaneously stage a trade fair on the Capitol grounds that would feature the best products from the province’s 12 towns.
The Philippine Bird Festival was launched by local bird watching hobbyists in 2005 and has since brought the message of birdlife awareness and conservation to Cebu City Philippines and Puerto Princesa in Palawan, two of the country’s important bird areas.
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