by Gabbi Reyes-Banaria
As the year winds down, we turn our attention to the heart and soul of our bird club newsletter – the editorial team. Their passion for birds and storytelling has filled each issue with vibrant articles, insightful observations, and breathtaking photos that have brought our community closer to nature. This year-end feature highlights some of the the dedicated individuals whose creativity and passion have kept our love for birds soaring throughout the seasons.
Maia Tañedo, Editor in Chief
What do you love about the holidays?
The holidays for me is a time for family and friends that are my chosen family. It is a time to show appreciation and love for them in different ways that truly count – presents and tokens, quality time, karaoke sessions, brunch and coffee dates!
What is your birding Christmas wish?
My birding Christmas wish is to have more time for birding whether near or far. (And of course, a lifer here and there!)
What are you looking forward to the most in 2025?
I look forward to more good opportunities! This goes for both personal and professional lives as well as in terms of birding!
What New Year’s message can you give our readers?
May this New Year bring everyone good health, more wealth, and even more time for birding adventures! The birding world has done wonders to my soul over the years and I wish the same for birders everywhere.
Cristina Cinco, Managing Editor
What do you love about the holidays?
Of family and friends being together.
What is your birding Christmas wish?
To go out into the field and do more birding!
What are you looking forward to the most in 2025?
Coming out with more educational materials for the members to properly arm them with knowledge them they go out birding.
What New Year’s message can you give our readers?
Discover! Make more friends. Continue to inspire others to go birding.
Michele Logarta, Associate editor and author of Birder’s Bookshelf column
What do you love about the holidays?
The amihan
What is your birding Christmas wish?
A better world —-for the birds and Mother Nature and for us humans too!
What are you looking forward to the most in 2025?
More birding adventures
What New Year’s message can you give our readers?
One can’t say this enough. Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle. Walk more, eat more vegetables. Here’s to a happy, healthy, birdy New Year!
Mike Lu, Contributor
What do you love about the holidays?
Get-togethers !
What is your birding Christmas wish?
For the rufous hornbills to return to Mt Palay Palay
What are you looking forward to the most in 2025?
To discover new birding destinations
What New Year’s message can you give our readers?
Do your part in raising awareness to the world of birdwatching.
Ana Alcantara, Contributor
What do you love about the holidays?
I love how people can unwind during holidays and be together with family and friends. It’s a period when people finally have time away from work to relax after all the stress during the year.
What is your birding Christmas wish?
My birding Christmas wish is to obtain another bird-related book or merchandise this holiday. I might not have the time to bird this holiday period, so the next best thing for me is to read a new book or get new bird merch from local artists.
What are you looking forward to the most in 2025?
Seeing Mindanao birds for the first time! I’m going to CARAGA this January 2025 for an event and, as a Luzon-centric birder, I’m very much excited to see Mindanao endemics in the area. If anyone knows good birding spots near Butuan City, feel free to contact me and offer advice!
What New Year’s message can you give our readers?
Enjoy your well-deserved vacation! Take this time to recharge and reflect on your life’s journey. Focus on the positive milestones you had during the previous year and tackle every experience with a growth mindset. You got this!
(Also if you have time, it’s a nice experience to join the Asian Waterbird Census that’ll happen in January 2025. Go and join any AWC when you can!)
Crissy Montes, Contributor
What do you love about the holidays?
Scrooge’s nephew in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” says it best: “I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”
What is your birding Christmas wish?
More time to bird, and to read and write poetry about birds
What are you looking forward to the most in 2025?
Discovering and trying out new things
What New Year’s message can you give our readers?
“To cast aside regret and fear. To do the deed at hand.” –Gandalf in “The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Gabbi Reyes-Banaria, Contributor
What do you love about the holidays?
Spending time with family and seeing loved ones I haven’t seen in a while.
What is your birding Christmas wish?
For a super rare migrant to magically pass by my house!
What are you looking forward to the most in 2025?
To have more time for birding!
What New Year’s message can you give our readers?
Let’s learn more from nature in 2025! Also, I know there are a good number of new members—I hope to meet you all soon and maybe you might be my next portrait.
Finally, to our dearest readers, your curiosity and love for birds bring this newsletter to life and unite our community in appreciation of the natural world. We look forward to sharing more stories, discoveries, and moments of wonder with you in the year ahead. Thank you for being an essential part of our birding family!