DNR Youth Birding Winners Announced

Young Birders and Birds Win in Youth Birding Competition

Last weekend’s 2012 Youth Birding Competition provided a fun boost for conservation, birds and about 95 young Georgia birders.

The 24-hour birding event held Friday and Saturday by the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division drew 25 teams from preschool-ages to teens. Contestants spotted 209 bird species and raised nearly $1,200 for wildlife conservation.

The MockingjJays, a team of Watkinsville and Savannah teens, saw or heard 143 species to win the overall competition and the high school division. Team member John Mark Simmons of Watkinsville also earned the event’s mentor award for working with a primary division team, The Sparrows.

Contest coordinator Tim Keyes of Wildlife Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section said having an event regular like Simmons helping younger birders was one of the highlights. The Youth Birding Competition is aimed at cultivating an interest in birds and wildlife conservation.

Qianci Ma, 12, of Duluth, was the grand-prize winner in the T-shirt Art Contest. The stunning blue jay in flight painted by the sixth-grader at SKA Academy of Art & Design graced this year's event T-shirts. Noting the record 264 entries, art contest coordinator Linda May said that choosing winners "was very tough!”

TERN, the Audubon Society, the Georgia Ornithological Society and others sponsored the event.

Read more in today’s press release.

See team photographs and the top T-shirt Art entries at our Flickr site!

Dates for the 2013 Youth Birding Competition will be posted soon at www.georgiawildlife.com/youthbirdingcompetition.