THE Wild Bird Photographers of the Philippines (WBPP) Team Pilipinas won 4th place in the 1st Vietnam Bird Race at Tràm Chim National Park in Dong Thap Province, Vietnam recently.
WBPP Team Pilipinas was the only foreign team to win the close bird race.
With 68 bird species photographed, the team was only 1 point behind the Vietnamese team Spot-billed Pelican, which scored 69 points and thus took third place.
Second place went to the Vietnamese team Bengal Florican that spotted 70 bird species.
Vietnamese team Brown Bobby bagged the first spot as it scored 71 bird species.
The 1st Vietnam Bird Race attracted 20 teams, including those from Malaysia, Cambodia, Phiippines, Peru and Norway.
About 77 birders (bird photographers and birdwatchers), including 17 foreigners, made up the participating teams.
WBPP Pilipinas team was composed of WBPP co-founder and president Alain Pascua, treasurer Djop Tabaranza, secretary Bert Madrigal and trustee Loel Lamela.
The 1st Vietnam Bird Race was organized to strengthen networking among nature and birding communities in Vietnam and worldwide, promoting awareness and interest in bird conservation, and strengthening sustainable tourism in protected areas.
Vietnamese ornithologist Nguyen Hoai Bao, head of the organizing committee of the first Vietnam Bird Race, said the bird race is likened to a sporting event where each participating team consists of four members (or at least three) and the team that photographs the most bird species wins.
The race took place in a national park in the Plain of Reeds in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. The park was established to restore a degraded wetland and protect several rare birds, in particular the Sarus Crane — a species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
