BirdsCaribbean is a vibrant international network of members and partners committed to conserving Caribbean birds and their habitats in the insular Caribbean (including Bermuda, the Bahamas and all islands within the Caribbean basin).
Our
mission is to raise awareness, promote sound science, and empower local partners to build a region where people appreciate, conserve and benefit from thriving bird populations and ecosystems.
We are a non-profit (501 (c) 3) membership organization. With
35 years of experience, BirdsCaribbean has built an extensive and active network of more than 60 partners across the region that includes government agencies, institutions, businesses, and non-profits.
Together with our partners, we develop regional projects to achieve our shared bird conservation goals. We also work to engage people of all ages in learning about birds—their beauty, value and why it is important to protect them. The overaching goal of all our programs is to facilitate local research, management, on-the-ground conservation actions, education, and community outreach.
We do this through our flagship programs such as the
Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival,
West Indian Whistling-Duck and Wetlands Conservation Project,
Seabird Conservation & Monitoring, and
Caribbean Waterbird Census, as well as programs like the
Caribbean Birding Trail that seek to demonstrate the economic value of birds and their habitats. We also have a new
Landbird Monitoring Program that provides training in standardized bird monitoring techniques, installation of Motus stations throughout the region, and training and certification in bird banding. We provide funding through our
Grants Program and a venue for publishing research and conservation in our peer-reviewed journal,
The Caribbean Journal of Ornithology.
Integral to our organization’s core programs is formal opportunities for training and career development at the island level for local people, including a
Mentorship program. Our capacity-building model is to impart knowledge, skills, equipment, and materials needed to carry out a project to in-country wildlife professionals, conservation scientists, educators, and volunteers through intensive train-the-trainer workshops. The workshops are often followed up with the opportunity to apply for a grant to immediately implement what was learned. The nature of our programs also provides an informal environment for mentoring students and young wildlife professionals.
Because we have focused on building a regional conservation community around birds, we now have partners and members on every island, and more than 100,000 local people participate in our programmes each year, making us the most broad-based conservation organization in the region.
