HARLINGEN — It’s that time of year again when hundreds of birders flock to Harlingen for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.
This is the 14th year of the birding festival and participant numbers seem to be holding steady, Terri Bortness, chairwoman of the 2007 festival, said Friday.
About 500 people have already registered for the festival and at least another 500 are expected to show up during the week’s events. The festival starts Wednesday and continues through Sunday.
“We’ve pretty much leveled off at those numbers,” Bortness said. “I really think that now there’s so many birding festivals to choose from that to have about the same number of people as we did last year, we’re doing great.”
“We’ve made a name for ourselves as a premiere festival,” Bortness added.
This year the RGV Birding Festival organization spent about $20,000 to market the event, Bortness said. They marketed through direct mail and in national magazines such as Birder’s World, Bird Watcher’s Digest and Wild Bird, Bortness added.
Bortness said there was no specific target population, just birders in general.
The city helped the organization with $23,000 for operations this year, City Manager Craig Lonon said.
This year’s themed bird will be the black bellied whistling duck, a species unique to the Valley, Bortness said.
A big attraction at the festival will be the presence of Jonathan Alderfer, a premier bird illustrator and co-author of the book The National Geographic Field Guide to Birds.
Alderfer is this year’s festival T-shirt artist and will be showcasing and selling some of his artwork at the Fair Park City Auditorium Complex from Thursday through Sunday.
Bortness said that as always one of the biggest draws of the festival will be the field trips, such as a canoe trip down the Rio Grande and a trip to King Ranch.
There will also be children’s programs and a tradeshow that will feature international vendors from Britain, Ecuador, Uganda, Mexico and Canada, Bortness said.
Live birds will be on display as well at Casa de Amistad, 1204 Fair Park Blvd., from Thursday through Sunday.
Bortness said the weather is looking very good for birding and hopes local birders will also participate in the festival.
FYI
* For more information on the 2007 Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival visit www.rgvbirdfest.com or call the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-531-7346.
