Hi

My name is .........
...... Gunnar
– and I am a Birder!  

Birding used to be something for nerds. We all know that this is changing. One does not have to join the birding version of AA to get back to a normal life any more. Birding is not weird. Interest in birdwatching is getting more mainstream. There is a revolution going on. But many of the birders of yesteryear have no idea what is coming. Do you?
 

The last two years at birding festivals and birding clubs in various parts of the world, I have been giving a talk called: “The Future of Birding – A Birdwatching Paradigm Shift”.  The message below develops some of the ideas from this talk, and it also invites you to become part of the "future of birding" together with us. It is indeed a paradigm shift.

The future of birding is here right now. And it is really cooking! There are more people interested in birds than ever before, yet in countries where birding has a long tradition, birding clubs and membership organizations have a tough time recruiting new members.  Why is that?

In contrast Audubon Society, Cornell Birding Lab (through ebird and Merlin) and American Bird Conservancy in the US and RSBP in the UK, are more influential than ever through the smart use of social media and online resources. 

The birding revolution can be observed even more in countries which are lacking a traditional birdwatching community. Take Brazil for instance. There are over 30 000 active members in the bird photography sharing platform Wikiaves. There is a large number of specialized lodges and guides for bird photography in Brazil, mainly targeting the local market. 

All over Asia, in every single nature park you find 100s of people with tripods and mega lenses pointing at birds. China alone have over 100K bird photographers.

In Sweden on national television there was a reality game show in 8 episodes with teams consisting of nonbirding celebrities paired with a birder each. These teams competed against each other in birding related outdoor activities. It was a bit like Dancing with the Stars - but about birding. Over a million viewers saw the last two episodes which were filmed in Peru with Kolibri Expeditions organizing the logistics.

So in short. Birding is getting more mainstream, but at the same time it is easy to access, so there is less need for birding clubs. All information about birding can be found on the net. Pictures videos of birds are shared on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. There is no need to get out of your comfort zone to enjoy the birds. 

Having said that, when people are getting in to birds, be that through a camera or with binoculars, it sparks an interest to learn more. With more knowledge, the importance of conservation and habitat protection becomes more evident. 

There will soon be an army of people who care about nature. Undoubtedly, there will be some mishaps at times from newbies who have not come from a long tradition of conservation minded nature watching, but this should not stop us working out ethics and code conduct for different scenarios.

The important thing to remember is that together (new school and old school) we will be very strong, and at the end of the day, the more the merrier.

Birdwatching complemented with bird photography is the future of birding. The more we can combine the two, the bigger opportunity for growth and become mainstream. Life listing, as a way of keeping tab, is less important for the new birder.  It is more about seeing specific species and getting good shots of remarkable birds to share on social media platforms. The overall experience plays a more important role. 

In fact, one could argue that there are two different approaches to birding which involve different brain halfs. 

• Left Brain (logical). The traditional birder got into birds because he/she was dominated by the left brain half and became a lister, ecologist and conservationist who loves taxonomy and the analytical scientific mindset of the hobby. 
• Right Brain (esthetics). The new birder of today gets into birds with the right brain half because it is the esthetics of the birds that sparks the interest. The beauty of shape, color and form can also be transmitted via a photography on social media and shared to the masses who will also be attracted to birds with the right brain half response.

Can it be done? Yes, with our strategy...... most certainly!

Providing magical experiences with birds, mammals, nature in general and culture with expert guides is the combined mission statement for KE/7WB.

Kolibri Expeditions is to provide high value traditional birding trips for all types of birders and bird photographers at all levels of experience and budgets in Peru in particular and every so often all over Neotropical America. These tours can be customized to the interest of the group, but of course longer such tours will need a special focus.

7 Wonders Birding on the other hand is the bucket list approach to birding. Short tours for the most amazing birds, iconic mammals and world heritage sites. These trips truly defines the essence of our combined mission statement. Anyone can join these trips. One could even say they are the perfect birding trip for a non birder since they are not intimidating, but also a perfect trip for serious birders who wants to see say the top 5-10 targets of a destination in a very short period of time. Maybe there is simply not enough free time to do a complete cleanup of for example Borneo, India or Australia.

Since all 7WB trips can be extendend with pre and post tours focusing more on traditional birding and trying to get as many endemics as possible of an area, it means that the birder who still wants a long list can easily take one of these post/pre trips and see virtually all the same birds as on a regular two-three week birding trip.

The idea is to provide a core that is both broad enough and short enough to capture everyone’s full attention focusing on the most important targets on the bucket list. This is very welcome for people who have little time, or those who have no interest in long 24/7 birding trips. The latter group can do other independant traveling before and after. Anyone, regardless of experience, will enjoy just 5 days of birding, as long as they can do something else or additional before or after. 

Similarly to this concept, I have now fine tuned the most popular 5 day itineraries for Peru to fit this format and we shall now offer these trip at any time Monday-Friday throughout the year. They can of course also be run back to back on request.
They are:

• Manu road
• Machu Picchu
• North Peru

In order to make trips happen every week we need to get the word out. Traditional marketing has proven very ineffective this day and age. Word of mouth and talk triggers are much more effective. We simply need people to start talking about these trips. Make it viral! Maybe you would like to help spreading the word. 
 

Even though I know you are passionate about birding and that you want to see more birders in the world and therefore you would sing our praise to the world anyway.  If you plan booking a trip for yourself and your friends, or if you want to make referrals, I want to offer the selected people who receive this newsletter some incentives to become ambassadors of our revolutionary short trips. Help us market with word of mouth and you will get: 

• 10 % discount on these trips yourself.
• Anyone you bring or refer to gets 5% discount. 
• You will get the first notion of new trips and you get to select dates and destinations that suits you. 
• You can also become reseller for our short trips and make money with comissions.  Email me to set up a reseller account if you are interested in this. 
  (Maybe Kolibri Expeditions could become the Herbalife of birding!? Multi Level Marketing. Haha!
  I doubt this is a model for us, but of course I am interested if anyone wants to sell our products for a commission.)

For the time being we only consider the mentioned 5 day Peru trips mentioned above and the 7WB tours, but it is likely that we shall expand to other tours very soon.  Especially trips which need one or two more takers.

In order to become a Kolibri Embassador you only need to reply to this email with a “I’m in!”.
 

Feel free to ventilate your thought in your reply and give us ideas where you would like the Bucket List Approach To Birding to take you nest.

I am also preparing some very exciting projects in Peru that you can be part of within 2020. These will be presented in a newsletter later this year to our ambassadors first of all. 

They include a new pelagic offer, getting the community lodge on Satipo road in top notch condition and establish a condor feeding station with a photography hide close to Lima.