Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is this week

The 2010 Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is set to attract bird enthusiasts from across the country.

The festival is a huge success every year as it combines seminars and lectures, field trips to birding hot spots across the Valley, educational events for children and trade shows, Marci Fuller, the event’s chairwoman, said.

This is the 17th year for the festival, which is based in Harlingen.

The event begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday. The Harlingen Municipal Auditorium, 1204 Fair Park Blvd., is the site for registration.

Fuller credits the Valley’s location, unique ecosystem and more than 30 species of birds, that can’t be seen anywhere else in the United States, for the success the Birding Festival has seen through the years.

“Birders are listers,” she said. “They like to keep track of the birds they have seen.”

Bird enthusiasts come from all across the country, but the festival isn’t only for them. It’s also for anyone who wants to learn and enjoy the great things that are happening in our own back yard, Fuller said.

Some of the highlights will be the field trips to Santa Ana Wildlife refuge and Laguna Atascosa, the birders trade show and Jonathan Wood’s Raptor Project.

“Wood will be exhibiting 30 live birds of prey,” Fuller said. “And some of his owls have been in the Harry Potter films.”

At its inception, the festival had 750 participants and it continues to grow, boosting the city’s economy and offering a threefold impact for the Harlingen area community: conservation awareness, local awareness and youth involvement, organizers say.

For more information, go to rgvbirdfestival.com. As of Saturday, the website was still saying that walk-ins were welcome.