Florida Young Birders Continue to Thrive

Tampa Bay Audubon Society

Florida Young Birders Club

Jim McGinity

Report

September 9, 2025

The Club is getting ready to start up the new year with its first outing this Saturday at Lettuce Lake Park.  After the walk, we will be sitting down to plan the monthly outings for the year.  We also will discuss the topics for the 4 - 5 Jay Chat Zoom programs.  The young birder who initiated the Jay Chats graduated from high school and has moved on to UF.  We have a new member who has agreed to coordinate the program.  I will be working with him to ensure a smooth transition.

Overall, the club is doing well with 25 members currently of the total 60 members statewide.  There are active chapters in Tampa Bay, Orlando, Sarasota and Northeast Florida.  We are looking to transition some of the chapter names to be more geographically based. 

We are still looking for leadership from the club to take on the role of running the Instagram and YouTube channel for the club.

Another thing that is in the works is planning for the third annual weekend young birder trip to the West Palm Beach area.  It will be at the Everglades Conservation Camp over the MLK Weekend in January 2026.

The Florida Ornithological Society (FOS) is setting up an endowment fund to support young birder development.  They will be announcing it at their fall meeting in Ft. Myers in October. 

Once it is established with $60,000 one up with seed money being donated by a private individual over the next 3 years.  It will start with $15,000 each year then it will be evaluated at the end of that period.  FOS will be setting up a committee to oversee the fund and how the interest is spent on various projects.  I will report back once it is officially set up.  The hope is that individuals and Audubon chapters who are interested in supporting youth birding programming will contribute to the endowment so that it can grow and support more young birder initiatives.