8th Philippine Bird Festival takes flight Friday

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The 8th Philippine Bird Festival, the country’s largest celebration of avifaunal diversity and bird lore awareness, takes wing today in Manila and will bring attention to Manila Bay and the important role it plays in the East Asian Flyway.

Themed “Birdwatching. It’s More Fun in the Philppines” this year’s festival will highlight the little egret, a common migrant that congregates in the coastal lagoons of the southern coast of Metro Manila during the northern winter, and the endemic Philippine duck, whose remnant population in the city is threatened by reclamation and property development plans in that part of Manila Bay.

Bird watchers, conservationists and tourism promoters from all over the country and abroad are expected to flock to the Teodoro F. Valencia Circle in Rizal Park Friday and Saturday.

This year’s bird festival aims to promote the hobby as a nature tourism activity and drum up support for conservation and restoration of Metro Manila’s remaining wetland in the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA), a 175-hectare protected habitat just off the Coastal Road leading to Cavite province.