Photo ©
SalaPajearer
Sal a Pajarear Yucatan (Go Bird Watching in Yucatan) is a Mexican organization dedicated to promoting the appreciation, observation, and conservation of birds, especially among children and young people of the Yucatan Peninsula. The group has gotten children and the local community interested in the environment and their local birds through bird observation. With the support of a binocular mini-grant from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Optics for the Tropics, the children of the community El Naranja were able to use binoculars to discover birds in their surroundings.
The children of the region of El Naranjal enjoyed discovering the beautiful colors as well as the different behaviors of their local birds using the binoculars. They were led by local guides, Jorge Jesus Chi Carrillo and Cristina Piña Caamal, and the field guides, materials, and binoculars were donated by Optics for the Tropics and provided by The Art and Education Program (Fundación Transformación Arte y Educación A. C.). With all of these marvelous materials, several activities were organized for the participants! They made bird observing trips to the countryside and observed birds for months, especially during the monthly visits of the coordinators of the Sal a Pajarear Yucatán program. During the observations, the children learned the names of the birds and were able to identify them in their natural environment. The records of the birds observed during field trips were reported on the aVeraves platform, an eBird platform in Mexico. It was amazing to see the children engaging in citizen science and learning more about the environment!
Page Written by Ashley Calderon and Sanjna Das