ORGANIZED BIRDERS
A SHORT SUMMARY:
The organization of Turkish Birders has started with The Society for the Protection of Nature in Turkey, Dogal Hayati Koruma Dernegi (DHKD). DHKD brought individual birders or small groups of friends who used to bird by themselves together in bird research projects, migration outings and small seminars. In one of these seminars birders who had gone bird watching together for a time and were all in Ankara decided to come together and give some sort of structure to their activities. This decision then was realized in 1992 when they started to gather every friday at Uygar Özesmi's house and bird in Middle East Technical University Campus (METU) next day in the early morning. The name AKGT was then adopted which stands for Ankara Kus Gözlem Toplulugu - Ankara Bird Watching Club. Almost all the active members of ODTU-BIYOT, Middle East Technical University Biology Club became part of AKGT at that time and ODTU-BIYOT became its legal standing as an organization. AKGT sent offshoots starting after about 1 year of existence which included Hacettepe University Bird Club, ODTU-BIYOT (recently some members founded a club for themselves called ODTU Kus Gozlem Toplulugu - OKGT ), Ankara Universitesi Ziraat Fakultesi Kus Toplulugu (ZIRKUS), and Yirtici Kus Arastirma Toplulugu (YIKAT). Now these organizations are tried to be brought together under the leadership of Tansu Gürpinar in Turkish Ornithological Council - Turk Ornitoloji Konseyi (TOK). Recently a formal society called Bird Research Society - Kus Arastirmalari Dernegi (KAD) has also been founded.
Since 1992, these groups have done wonderful activities including producing reports, doing research and projects, bird photography exhibitions, printing and selling bird cards, promoting bird watching through bird watching schools. I hope that the seeds we have planted in 1992 will continue to sprout and we will have bird watching organizations as strong as an old oak tree. I would be very happy if you could write a piece for yelkovan about your history and activities if you came to this page and belong to one or more of these or other groups [UÖ].
A List of Bird Organization in Turkey and Region:
