Cultivating Our Connection to Birds: Bringing Up More Young Birders

By Guest Blogger Jeff Caplan

​Last month, I lead a very enjoyable walk for SFBBO at Ulistac Natural Area in Santa Clara on Bird Language. As I looked around the circle of twenty students that day, I made an observation I often make on bird walks: we’re all over 50 old! Well, not quite. I noticed a few seeds of change: three parents had brought their teens.  

“Is this going to be another boring walk just naming the birds we see?” muttered one teen before returning back to her cell phone. ​

Good question! My bird language mentor, Jon Young, charged me with a mission: “To protect birds for generations to come, we need get more diverse families and young birders into the flock!”
 
Over the past year I have been building a new nest to fledge a bilingual family bird festival. I shared my excitement with the class,“This month SFBBO volunteers will be flapping their way over the hill to Santa Cruz to kick off the inaugural BirdFUNfestival!
 
I could already see the skeptical curiosity in the teens' eyes. “What’s a Bird Fun Festival, and why would I want to go," they asked.
 
I gave my best pitch about the three-day event, which takes place Sept. 14-16. At the festival, kids and their families will get to: make bird masks; learn to sketch hawks, pelicans and ospreys; build bird feeders from recycled materials; pose for a Pinterest portrait; enjoy hands-on science and art; learn how to establish better bird habitat in their gardens; “fly” with the “mini-migration"; and join a bilingual bird walk on the San Lorenzo River to learn some bird language and make new connections to birds, art and history.

​By the end of our walk, the teens were laughing and sharing their enjoyment of bird language. One said "Thank you for making this so accessible, I didn't have to memorize the names of the birds to be able to listen and learn about them, and my sister enjoyed the turrent spiders we were watching, too." That's a good beginning!
 
I said, “If you want to have more fun with birds, tell your smart phone to go to BirdFUNfest.org." The teens and more than a few of the adults dove back into their phones with smiles and curiosity.
 
Jeff Caplan weaves 30 years as a naturalist and a teacher of communication skills to cultivate a common language for connecting more deeply with nature and birds. He combines storytelling, citizen science and strengthening observation skills to inspire connection and stewardship among his audiences.