2014 San Diego Bird Festival

February 27-March 2

John Fitzpatrick - Director of Cornell Lab of Ornithology

John Fitzpatrick and Bill Thompson were the main speakers in 2013. They co-lead bird trips and conducted workshops.

John Fitzpatrick is the director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. His current research focuses on the ecology, conservation biology, and population genetics of the endangered Florida Scrub Jay. His book, Florida Scrub Jay: Demography of a Cooperative-breeding Bird earned him a William Brewster Award, the highest research award given by the American Ornithologists' Union.

Bill Thompson - Editor of Bird Watcher's Digest

Bill Thompson is the editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest. He is the author of many books including The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of North America. He leads birding trips across North America and has birded in more than 25 countries.

The 2013 Festival Has Just Completed

Thanks go to all our guests, our leaders and presenters, the tireless volunteers, and, of course, the birds. We think this Festival has been one of our best.

Click here to see a chart of the birds that were seen on our trips this year. There were 2360 individual sightings of 236 species.

Many 2013 trips have been documented with complete bird lists on the SDBIRDS website http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SDBIRDS/. Look for the entries posted on March 1st and thereafter.

We have left the descriptions of our 2013 events on the website as we will repeat most of them in 2014 along with adding a few new events. Village to register for events. Click on any day in the sidebar to see all the events for that day.

Planning for the 2014 Festival

As we formulate the plans for the 2014 Festival we will be post infomation about our keynote speakers and presenters as well as describe new events we develop. We expect brochures to be mailed and registration to open in September. If you attended in 2012 or 2013, we will mail a Festival brochure to you.

To contact us: Please contact David Kimball at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Jen Hajj at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any questions about our events, the registration process, would like to be mailed a brochure or need other information. Provide us a mailing address and we will mail a copy of the brochure to you as soon as they are printed. For information about sponsoring or vendor displays, contact Karen Straus at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

All workshops and events will agan be held at Marina Village. All field trips will depart from Marina Village where parking is plentiful and free and transportation is provided. For directions to and a map of Marina Village click here .