We're a group of bird and outdoor enthusiasts creating queer-centred space for our community to enjoy birds. We welcome all birding experience-levels; we have a wealth of bird-knowledge among our members that we love to share, and we work to create a welcoming and safe learning space for beginning birders.
Not sure where to see birds? Birds are virtually everywhere!!
Even in cities, birds are living their lives, and you can appreciate them. Rock Pigeons have gorgeous rainbows of colour, and Mourning Doves make their sad “cooooo coooo” song. You might see a hawk hunting from atop the buildings. House Sparrows hop down to grab your leftover French fries.
If you want to see a greater diversity of birds, a park or natural area will likely have more species. eBird provides lots of data on birds anywhere you go, and you can see a list of birding “hotspots” in Waterloo Region. You can also track your bird sightings with the eBird app or website, making birding like Pokémon GO.
Download the free Merlin Bird ID app on your phone for a helpful interactive tool to show you birds local to your area, including photos and descriptions of each species. Merlin even has sound recognition and image recognition features, which can be powerful tools to help you hone your own skills!
Birding can seem like an intimidating space to enter. The goal of our group is to create community. This means that we are humble and generous about the knowledge we have of birds. Anyone with any level of knowledge or experience is welcome! Beginners are given opportunities to learn, and our members will gracefully answer any questions they have.
There are numerous tools that exist to help identify and learn more about birds, including the free Merlin phone app, which has recognition tools for pictures and audio/sound, as well as information about the birds in your local area. The eBird phone app can connect to your eBird account, tracking your bird “life list” and other statistics, making birding like collecting Pokémon! Birding books come in all sizes and price ranges, and we have several communal books to share with trip attendees.
Everyone should be able to enjoy nature. We organize carpools for almost all events, so that people can join our trips via our centralized pickup locations in Kitchener and Waterloo. If you have difficulty accessing these locations, please reach out to us.
You don’t have to bring anything with you, except to be prepared to be outdoors (though we have extra warm things for the cold weather!). We have a communal pool of extra binoculars, birding resource books, and some other miscellaneous gear, such as sun hats.
If you have any gear you’d like to donate, we’d be happy to have it and share at our events.
We have been working as a group to make the outdoor locations we love enjoyable for everyone. This group is not for strenuous hiking and rough terrain; birding should be for the joy of birds! We work to pick locations that as many people as possible can enjoy. When we advertise trips, we will provide details about the trail conditions (picking locations with navigable terrain and trails), meetup locations, trip duration, location amenities (washrooms, shade, benches), and seasonal factors (snow, rain, mud, etc.)
We are beginning to offer multiple trips through the year that are advertised as “Stationary Birding”, where we stay at one location and observe the birds we can see while staying in one place, as well as “Afternoon Birding”, so not just those Early Birders can attend our trips.
One example of a great resource we are hoping to contribute more to in the Waterloo Region is Birdability. See this example of the accessibility details available for the Columbia Lake Trails.
In all interactions with the group, during outings, and in community (online and in person), we should follow the following rules:
Participants should also engage in ethical birding practices:
More information can be found in the ABA Code of Birding Ethics.
We credit the Feminist Bird Club's code of conduct, as well as the rules for the Queer and Trans Waterloo Region Discord, for help with these rules.
Information about upcoming trips is shared seasonally to the email list (Google group) as well as on Discord and Facebook. Reminders about upcoming trips are shared about a week prior.
There is a Google Form to fill out to RSVP for each trip you wish to join.
Most trips have a carpool option, with one leaving from Waterloo Park and one leaving from Willow River Park. There will be a place to mark that you need a carpool ride on the Google Form, or that you can offer carpool rides. This will be used to organize who will drive and how many people will be picked up.
Carpool emails with details for those who need a ride are sent out a day or two before the trip.
Most of our trips are in the tricity area. We will have a meetup spot where we will gather at a specified time and do a quick introduction. We will talk about the location and which birds we might see, and make sure that everyone has what they need to enjoy the trip.
If you have a pair of binoculars, these are helpful for spotting birds. Our group has some extra binoculars to lend out, but we are always looking for more donated ones. The local public libraries also lend out birder backpacks that have binoculars in them.
Sunscreen and bug spray are also smart things to bring along, depending on the time of year. Dress for the weather, and running/walking shoes or other sturdy footwear is recommended.
Our trips usually last about 2 hours. We move slowly, frequently stopping to observe, listen, and chat. The time is usually very relaxing, with people sharing observations with each other. We make our way back to the meeting spot at the end.