British Birdwatching Fair

The British Birdwatching Fair or Birdfair is an annual event for birdwatchers, held every August at Rutland Water in England, run by staff and volunteers from the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. It has been described as "the birder's Glastonbury".[1] A large number of suppliers of binoculars, cameras, books, clothing and other birdwatching equipment, plus artists and tour companies, display and sell their wares. There are also lectures and other attractions.

BirdFair
Founded1989 (1989)
TypeBird Festival
Location
Area served
birdwatching
Websitehttp://www.birdfair.org.uk/

The first fair was held in 1989. All the organisers' profits are donated to a charity, Birdlife International. Prior to the 2008 fair, visitors had contributed £1,488,000 to international bird conservation. The 2018 fair raised £322,000, making a total of £4,679,152 since the inception.[2]

Other countries are replicating the fair, including the South American Bird Fair, which was first held in 2010.[3]

Themes

Each year the Birdfair has a different fundraising theme; a list of these is as follows, with the approximate amount raised:

  • 1989: Stop the massacre campaign, Malta (£3,000)
  • 1990: Save Spain's Donana National Park (£10,000)
  • 1991: Danube Delta project, Romania (£20,000)
  • 1992: Spanish Steppes Appeal (£30,000)
  • 1993: Polish Wetlands Project (£40,000)
  • 1994: Project Halmahera, Indonesia (£45,000)
  • 1995: Moroccan Wetlands Project (£47,000)
  • 1996: Kẻ Gỗ Nature Reserve Forest Project, Vietnam (£55,000)
  • 1997: Mindo Forest Project, Ecuador (£60,000)
  • 1998: Threatened Birds Programme (£120,000)
  • 1999: Rescuing Brazil's Atlantic Forests (£130,000)
  • 2000: Save the Albatross Campaign (£125,000)
  • 2001: Eastern Cuba: a Caribbean Wilderness (£135,000)
  • 2002: Sumatra's Lowland Rainforests (£147,000)
  • 2003: Madagascar's Fragile Wetlands (£157,000)
  • 2004: Saving northern Peru's dry forests (£164,000)
  • 2005: Gurney's Pittas and their forest home (£200,000)
  • 2006: Saving the Pacific's Parrots (£215,000)
  • 2007: Preventing Extinctions programme (£226,000)
  • 2008: Preventing Extinctions programme (£265,000)
  • 2009: Preventing Extinctions programme (£263,000)
  • 2010: Ethiopia (£242,000)
  • 2011: Flyways (£227,000)
  • 2012: Flyways (£200,152)
  • 2013: Flyways (£270,000)
  • 2014: Protecting the Worlds Seas and Oceans (£280,000)
  • 2015: Protecting Migratory Birds of the Eastern Mediterranean (£320,000)
  • 2016: Saving IBAs in Africa (£350,000)
  • 2017: Saving Paradise in the Pacific (Rapa Iti) (£333,000)
  • 2018: Mar Chiquita: a haven for Argentina's flamingos (£322,000)
  • 2019: Conserving Cambodia’s big five in Western Siem Pang
  • 2020: The Birdfair was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4]

References
  1. "22,000 flock to Birdfair, the Glastonbury of birdwatching". The Guardian. 17 August 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  2. "Birdfair 2018 results". Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  3. "Feria de Aves de Sudamérica South America Bird Fair". Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  4. "Birdfair 2020 is cancelled". Birdguides. Retrieved 3 June 2020.

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