Whether you have come to this page straightaway or only after fully exploring our website, we hope that you will consider joining the San Vito Bird Club. Before you read about the tangible Benefits of Membership below, please consider how we use your membership dues:
Binoculars and bird guidebooks. First and foremost, we acquire binoculars and field guides to Costa Rican birds to loan to members and their guests. If you are a birder, you know it is practically impossible to participate in and enjoy a bird walk without these two basic items. And you also know how difficult it can be to share one pair of binos: by the time one of you has seen the bird well, it flits away before the other person has a chance to find it.
Community education. In a stellar collaboration with Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology (Lab of O), the SVBC began sponsoring the Lab’s innovative education program, ‘Detectives de Aves’, in local schools in the academic year 2013. We started modestly, presenting the 10-class session in five schools including a Field Trip to the Organization for Tropical Studies Wilson Botanical Garden. In mid-2016, several years later, we have now now engaged 16 schools and more than 500 students. Donations and volunteer support from members as well as other donors have made this wonderful ongoing program possible.
Sponsorships to educational programs. We have sponsored international travel for members to two ornithological conferences, one in El Salvador and one in Peru. The participants would not have been able to attend these important symposia without our—that would be: your—help. What is gained from these meetings in terms of local and global conservation issues is immeasurable. As other sponsorship opportunities arise in the future, we hope to have the funds to continue this program.
SVBC Publications. The Club sponsors a number of publications, notably a list of local plants—easy to include in home gardens or in reforestation plots on people’s farms—that will aid birds and other wildlife. These are given, free of charge, to members and their families and friends.
Benefits of Membership
- Free twice-monthly, bi-lingual guided Bird Walks at the Wilson Botanical Garden or other nearby birding hotspots (once a month in the rainy season from April to October).
- Guided day trips to regional birding destinations.
- Participation in occasional SVBC-guided day trips to birding hotspots near San Vito.
- Volunteer opportunities in the local community, including the Club’s participation in the Festival Eco-Cultural at the Las Cruces Biological Station (OTS) and the Detectives de Aves educational program.
- Members-only annual meeting in the San Vito area, usually in February or early March.
- Opportunity to submit your photographs for possible use on the SVBC website and for our ongoing Photos of the Week. See Submitting Photos.
- A 10% discount on cash purchases (non-food items) at the Finca Cántaros Crafts Store in Linda Vista de San Vito.
Follow the SVBC via Email
You can receive notifications of the Bird Walks and trips by signing up on this website to receive emails when we announce forthcoming events. Use the “Follow the SVBC via Email” sign-up space in the lower right corner of the web page. (We do not use your email address for any other purpose.) We hope you will want to “follow us” this way but, most importantly, we ask you to join us as a member and support all our local efforts.
San Vito Bird Club 