Responsible tourism in birdwatching and wild bird photography

Abstract

Birdwatching and wild bird photography lately has been flourished, and on many occasions might cause some negative impact on the birds and their habitat. This paper explores the type and the nature of activities that usually done by birdwatchers or photographers and provide some suggestions how to be responsible birdwatchers/photographers to minimize the negative impact on birds. Information was collected from literature study and personal experience as birdwatchers and bird photographer, then analyzed to characterize the responsible birdwatchers/photographers. Birdwatchers or photographers can be categorized as hard core (advance), enthusiastic (intermediate, novice) and casual. Risks on birds may come from visitor’s intrusion and manipulation to get better photo or video images, including baiting/feeding, play-back, flushing, artificial spotlighting, and staging. To be responsible birdwatchers or photographers, those manipulation and some other prohibited actions such as disturbing birds/nestling/nest/nest site, approaching too close, touching, capturing, removing, killing, taking bird parts, making loud noise, and other harmful activities should be avoided. All types of birdwatchers or photographers must be responsible to their activities to ensure that the birds would not be disturbed, feeling stressed, alter their behavior, and decrease productivity. For a rare and protected wild bird species, posting of geolocation should be prevented