Golden Gate Bird Alliance and California Academy of Sciences are very excited to offer our Master Birding course. The objective of the course is to help ambitious students enhance their birding and environmental leadership skills, and develop new active conservation community members for GGBA, The Academy, and other Bay Area institutions. Students will develop a field notebook documenting sightings of over 200 bird species, learn how to identify the more difficult bird species, learn about avian physiology, behavior and taxonomy, and develop an understanding of avian habitats and bird communities. Students will participate in over 20 organized field trips, develop a backyard (local patch) list, and make a 10-minute presentation to the class on an avian topic of their choosing. Other details of the course will be presented to interested candidates. To successfully complete the program, students must commit to volunteer at least 100 hours with an approved conservation organization over a two-year period, and participate in at least 70% of the classes and field trips.
Classroom meetings will take place at The California Academy of Sciences with a remote Zoom option for folks who need to attend virtually.
Prior to taking the course, prospective students are expected to be able to identify California birds at an “intermediate level” (100+ species by sight, and 25+ species by sound). If you are interested please complete the Enrollment Questionnaire via the link below. Instructor will send the registration link to applicants who meet the prerequisites.
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Eleven Wednesday evening classes at California Academy of Sciences and Zoom starting February 9: 6:30 pm – 9 pm. Generally, 1st Wednesday of each month.
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Eleven Saturday morning field trips to a different site each month starting February 12. Field trip locations and times will be announced in class and by email. Field trips meet at the field trip site.
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$650 for Golden Gate Bird Alliance members and California Academy of Sciences members, $750 for non-members.
Once this class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.
A minimum of 10 students will need to register in order for this program to take place.