A Rocha Lebanon Bird Identification Course

The A Rocha Lebanon Bird Identification Course was originally designed to train key scientific staff from the newly emerging protected areas in bird ecology, field craft and bird identification. The course aim was to equip participants with the skills needed to carry out the bird monitoring and conservation work of these key areas protected for both resident and migrating birds. Following the first hugely popular training it has been modified and repeated to train local guides, young people and key members of site support groups of the newly declared Important Bird Areas identified as part of our national research programme.

Course outline:

The course includes both classroom and practical field work sessions. Although each course is tailored to the particular audience and location, broadly the course outline is as follows:

How to identify a bird – guide to bird watching, anatomy of a bird, use of a field guide, use of field notebooks
Introduction to the main biomes and habitats of Lebanon
Migration: why is Lebanon so important?
Soaring birds
The most important bird families represented in Lebanon

Courses run to date:

Dates	Location	Length of course	Participants
March & September 2003	Aammiq, West Bekaa, Lebanon	5 days	Scientific staff from Lebanon’s protected areas
September 2004	Ebel Is Saqi, South Lebanon	2 days	Local guides and young people
February 2005	Kafr Zabad, East Bekaa, Lebanon	2 days	Local guides and young people
January 2007	Aammiq, West Bekaa, Lebanon	2 days	Site Support group representatives of newly declared Important Bird Areas
April 2007	Aammiq	2 days	Internal security forces
October 2007	Aammiq	2 days	Site support groups of newly-declared IBAs
October 2007	Hrar, Akkar	1 day	Local young people through the MADA project

If you are part of a group that would like to find out more about the bird course email us at lebanon@arocha.org