Kaitlin To, a third-year ecology and evolutionary biology student, serves as president of Birding at UCI (BAU). The club hosts birding trips open to any UCI student during the first three weeks of the quarter. Students can then become members by paying $5 for the quarter or $10 for the year to go on off-campus trips.
Birding, also known as bird-watching, is a hobby that involves watching and identifying birds in their natural habitat. To recalled one of her favorite birding experiences.
“We went to Bolsa Chica nature preserve in Huntington Beach,” To told New University. “We saw tons of Great Blue Heron nests with tons of silly-looking babies that looked like Muppets that were still in the nests.”
To established the club in February 2022 and grew up visiting the San Joaquin Marsh along with other nature preserves around Irvine. There were no birding clubs on campus prior, so she found a community online and teamed up with five other students.
“I actually found out about some students wanting to make a birding club via Reddit,” To said. “None of us had met in person before and we didn’t really know the process of making a club.”
Sea and Sage Audubon Society, an Orange County chapter of the National Audubon Society, helped BAU by funding the club’s mission to make birding more accessible. These grants were used to buy tabling supplies and binoculars.
The birding club currently works with UCI’s Sustainability Resource Center and Facilities Management to reduce the amount of waste that harms wildlife on campus. The club is also focusing on reducing window collisions, as it is estimated that around 365 million to 1 billion birds die annually due to window collisions in the United States.
UCI students can volunteer at Aliso and Wood Canyons, the Ecological Preserve at UCI and the Newport Bay Conservancy. Volunteering opportunities range from weeding plants, beach cleanups, habitat restoration to even working at the greenhouse at UCI’s Ecological Preserve.
To commented on UCI Nature’s milk carton donation project, where students donate empty milk or juice cartons that could provide shelter to baby plants and protect them from being consumed by wildlife.
“So there [are] a lot of ways that [students can get involved], and some of them are very low commitment, like just donating a milk carton,” To said.
Students can be a part of Birding at UCI with no prior experience and contribute to the club’s ongoing conservation efforts. During the birding trips, some bird watchers share facts about birds they’ve seen, capture pictures or spectate from a distance.
“I hope that we can foster some passion within UCI students to help with conservation efforts around campus,” To said.
Students can start birding at their own pace. The first step could be learning to identify the birds in their surroundings and finding a community of bird watchers, which could be done by joining the Birding at UCI club, which meets in Rowland Hall 188 on Wednesdays at 5.
Neelanjana Anne is a Features Intern for the spring 2025 quarter. She can be reached at nsanne@uci.edu.
Edited by Alyssa Villagonzalo and Xinyu Zhang