We made it!.
This 13th Asian Bird Fair 2024 in Las Pinas, Philippines is our first bird fair’s booth opening. It was from 20th-24th November 2024. We really enjoy the event and have a lot of fun experiencing the warm hearted welcoming attitude from many of the event’s attendees. Asian bird fair was consist not only booth exhibition from many organization, but also talk shows about birds from all over asia, africa and even south america.
There are 74 booths from 21 countries. Most of them are from asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Nephal, Bhutan, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China, India, Sri lanka, and of course The Philippines. The rest are from Uganda, United States, Peru, and Colombia. Not only tour operators who open a booth, but also NGO of bird conservation, habitat conservation and even ocean conservation. There are also optics producers, outdoor gear shops, and camera shops.
We are grateful meeting with lots of people in the event. It opens up new opportunities for collaboration from other tour companies, person in person, and also optics producers. One of the wonderful person we met is Phill Gregory, whom we always use his field guide book for West Papua trip. Yes, Phill is the author of Birds of New Guinea. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our book to be signed by him. We will saved it for the future meet up.
The event was lasted for 3 consecutive days, with birding in Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park on the last day. Like any other places of wetland near the sea, there are plenty of shorebirds we there. Like Common redshank, Common sandpiper, Pacific golden plover, Kentish plover and many other birds who enjoy they rest in Manila Bay area during their migration season.
Everybody are enjoying this birding session. Since we found several Philippine’s endemics such as Philippine pygmy woodpecker and Philippine pied fantail. Unfortunately, the Philippine duck, which is the species who became 13th ABF official logo design, not seen from any of us. They are already threatened in the Philippines but there are still hopes for them to rise their population again.
The Asian Bird Fair 2025 will be held in South Korea in the city of Seosan on 31st October to 1 November. So, until next year meet up, keep healthy and birding guys!
