OAK HARBOR— When the Ohio Young Birders Club (OYBC) led a free youth field trip May 17 at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, the Toledo Free Press was on hand to chat with some of the youngest birders in attendance at the Biggest Week in American Birding.
The mission of OYBC, a program of Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO), is to encourage, educate and empower youth conservation leaders. Members participate in field trips and service projects and present an annual conference.
Some of the birds the youth spotted on their hike included a bald eagle on its nest, a common nighthawk, a mourning warbler, Baltimore orioles, yellow warblers and warbling vireos.
Students were accompanied by several adults, including Jamie Cunningham, education director and statewide coordinator for OYBC, and Kenn Kaufman, renowned birding expert behind the Kaufman Field Guide series. Kaufman said he was there to lend support and answer questions while the young people took the lead.
Kaufman is married to Kimberly Kaufman, executive director of BSBO, who played a key role in starting the OYBC in 2006 after a few young people came to BSBO staff searching for a youth birding organization. When they couldn’t find one, they decided to create one.
“Rather than try to tell the kids what the club would do, we just asked, what would you like this club to be?” recalled Kenn Kaufman. “So, they named it; they came up with the ideas for the programs.”
At the first annual conference, Kaufman said all the speakers, including the keynote, were under the age of 20.
“And so it’s been a principle of the Ohio Young Birders Club ever since that it’s an organization where the young people can shine,” he noted. “It’s not adults taking kids around and lecturing to them.”
The OYBC has become a model for youth birding programs around the country, with BSBO staff helping to create similar programs in more than 20 states and two other countries. The group offered two free field trips for birders under the age of 18 during this year’s Biggest Week in American Birding, the festival organized by the BSBO.
 led a youth field trip May 17 at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area to educate and youth conservation leaders.){kind=link}