Colombia is the country with the largest number of birds in the world, with 1,966 species, that is, 20% of the global total, according to WWF. These figures show that the country can once again take first place in the Global Big Day, the most important bird count in the world that took place this May 13 throughout the planet.
The activity consisted of observing, photographing and recording the birds that are seen in the national territory, through the digital platforms Merlin and eBird, developed by the Cornell University Ornithology Laboratory. You don’t need to be a bird expert or be out all day, even 10 minutes of birdwatching from home counts.
Thanks to the work of the G32 national committee and the observers and fans organized in national and departmental committees, tourist guides, tourism service providers and other members of the sector’s value chain, Colombia has won first place ten times since this event began in 2015, when only the month of May was dedicated to organizing it.
Then, in 2018, it was decided to do another count in October, as it is an important month due to the migration of these species. This is how the country has won five times in May (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022) and five in October (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022).
sighting
For this reason, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism promotes citizen mobilization in all regions of Colombia in this activity and joins the sighting tours of the District Tourism Institute of Bogotá, in the Eastern Hills of the capital.
In turn, with the purpose of making visible the ecosystemic importance of Bogotá, the Mayor’s Office has developed the agreement “Caminos de los Cerros Orientales” between the District Institute of Tourism, the District Secretary of Environment, Aguas de Bogotá, the Bogota Aqueduct and Sewer Company (EAAB), Secretary of the Environment and the Botanical Garden of Bogota; entities that work for the habilitation, planning, intervention, adequacy and integral maintenance of the trails located in the Eastern Hills and in the Adequacy Strip.
Thanks to this inter-institutional work, residents, visitors and tourists from the capital can develop experiences that promote education, environmental awareness and enjoyment of the benefits offered by natural spaces, through the practice of ecotourism, hiking and bird watching.
“From the Vice Ministry of Tourism, we are committed to developing nature tourism and bird watching in Colombia, as a mechanism to achieve environmental justice through the protection of our ecosystems,” said John Alexander Ramos, director of Quality and Sustainable Development of Tourism. , of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.
Ramos indicated that these world sighting days promote awareness about both general and specific threats that birds face, since “they demand that joint responsibility of observers and travelers to protect habitats, in order to continue enjoying contemplation and connection activities with nature”.
According to the eBird platform, which can be used throughout the year, so far in 2023 more than 18,300 users in Colombia have registered 1,700 bird species.
These numbers make the country one of the countries that has added the most birds to the lists, above Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, India and Indonesia. The regions that report the most are Antioquia, Meta, Valle del Cauca, Cundinamarca and Caldas.
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