Daily Times

With excitement in their voices, six birdwatchers raise binoculars and scan the treetops in a private sanctuary not far from Venezuela’s capital Caracas. Look, one says, there’s a blue-gray tanager. Another spots a warbler. At the break of dawn, the birdwatchers left Caracas to take part in Global Big Day, an annual worldwide celebration in which birders observe as many species as they can in a 24-hour period. Leading the group was Rosaelena Albornoz, a 61-year-old bird guide who has studied birds in Venezuela for nearly three decades. Emotions were high as the group arrived at Amaranta Hummingbird House, a private sanctuary in San Jose de los Altos in the state of Miranda where some 170 species of birds have been spotted.

“Birds are an indicator of the health of an ecosystem,” Albornoz tells AFP as she tallies the species they spot to upload on Ebird (https://ebird.org/), the platform to register bird sightings worldwide. “With Global Big Day… the public comes out to have fun with the birds by counting them,” says Albornoz, who left a job as an executive to study birds. Hummingbirds fly over flowers and feeders set up by retired physician Cecilia Martinez, owner of Amaranta Hummingbird House.