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Watsonville Civic Plaza.
Festival headquarters and registration for all activities will take place at the City of Watsonville Civic Plaza.
Directions
2010 Santa Cruz Conference and Visitors Council Fall Festival Series.
2011 Birds of a Feather - Santa Cruz County Bank.
Coloring Contest.
Coloring Contest Application

Welcome to the seventh annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival, home of one of the most spectacular birding and wildlife venues in North America.

Where else in the country could you look for Wrentits, Lawrence's Goldfinch, Clark's Grebes, White-tailed Kites, Nuttall's Woodpeckers, Yellow-billed Magpies, Snowy Plovers, California Thrashers, California Towhees, and Black-footed Albatrosses, just to name a few?

Our festival theme this year: "The Evolution of Birding - From Field Guides to Hi-Tech" will celebrate the days of John James Audubon to the modern days of hi-tech innovations in birding.

Designed for birders of all levels, as well as outdoor lovers, the festival offers a unique opportunity to explore, learn and appreciate world-class habitats such as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Pinnacles National Monument. You'll be able to go to outings in the mountains, shoreline, chaparral, sloughs and grasslands.

Dave Brockmann
Festival Coordinator

Highlights from the
2010 Festival

Latest News & Features

2011 Monterey Bay Birding Festival Photo Contest Winners
First Place
Pigeon Guillemot by Abe Borker

Second Place
California Condor by Sebastian KennerKnecht

Honorable Mention

Snowy Plovers in Flight by Zach Smith
Burrowing Owl by Sebastian KennerKnecht
Brown Pelican by Rick Le Baudour
Barn Swallows by Joe Morlan
Anna's Hummingbird by Erik Rogers
Yellow-billed Magpie by Dave Kutilek
Black-footed Albatross by Dave Kutilek
Greater Roadrunner by Christian Schwarz
Western Gulls by Abe Borker
Peregrine Falcon by Abe Borker

Congratulations to this year's Monterey Bay Birding Festival's Photo Contest winner Abe Borker for his image of a Pigeon Guillemot. Sebantian KennerKnecht photographed a California Condor for second place honors.

All of the entries will be considered for publication in the Monterey Bay Birding Festival's 2013 calendar that will be available for all patrons at the eighth annual event on Sept. 13-16, 2012.

Images were judged based on their Composition, Artistic Merit, Technical Quality, Depiction of their Subject Matter, and Overall Impact. A panel of judges appointed by the MBBF reviewed the photos based on the criteria.

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