Are you a young birder with a passion for birds and nature? The Santa Clara Valley Young Birders Club (SCV-YBC) offers a friendly, inclusive local birding community of like-minded youth for all birding interests and experience levels. We provide volunteer, learning, and leadership opportunities for all students who have a passion for birds and the environment. Step up your birding game by giving back to the birding community, and combining your love for birds with music, art, baking, and more! As a birding club run by students, for students, we aim to foster a welcoming community for young birders and create more opportunities for students like us in the birding community.

Young birders aged 10-21 may join on their own, while birders aged 5-10 years old should join with a parent.


SANTA CLARA VALLEY YOUNG BIRDERS CAN...

  • Connect with like-minded youth interested in birds and the environment in a safe, supportive community

  • Participate and lead birding field trips, Birdathon teams, tours, talks, and workshops exclusive

    to young birders

  • Promote conservation through community science and outreach activities

  • Fundraise through bake sales, street music performances, and more

  • Create educational content for social media

  • Lead and teach others through bird walks, presentations, and special projects

  • Develop skills and explore careers in science, education, communication, and public relations

  • Receive volunteer hours for their service

Upcoming Events:

Volunteering Opportunities

Young Birders Field Trips: Do you have a place you love to bird? Looking for a volunteering opportunity to help build your leadership skills? Our goal is to provide monthly field trips for young birders to take part in, and that’s most easily done with plenty of field trip leaders! You do not have to have previous field trip leader experience, our staff is here to support you with both the planning and execution. Contact programs@scvas.org to get involved.


Social Media: Do you have a favorite species you want to highlight over social media? Volunteers can get access to our library of bird photographs and videos to help them create fun outreach videos to teach the public about your favorite species or aspect of birding. Any platform is acceptable. Contact programs@scvas.org to get involved.

Nest Box Monitoring: Open through the spring and summer. Monitors check boxes in nest box trails and record data including but not limited to: nesting material, number of eggs, number of hatchlings, and instances of predation. Training is available in person and online. Training times will fall in late winter, exact date TBA. Contact programs@scvas.org to get involved.

Habitat Restoration: Do you want to help conserve birds and their habitats? Young birders can restore habitat for local bird populations through planting native plants, removing invasive plants, picking up trash, and more. We partner with local organizations at a variety of locations to allow young birders to improve a variety of ecosystems. 

Community Science: Do you want to contribute to scientific research in your community? Young birders can collect and analyze data for community science through Bird-a-thons, BioBlitzes, monitoring local bird populations, and special projects. No science knowledge or experience required! The data collected will go to real research projects and real scientists. 

Bake Sales: Do you enjoy baking, or have a favorite treat you’d love to share? Help fundraise for SCVAS through making and selling baked goods! We hold bake sales at least once a month. See upcoming events for the next date, time, and place. Contact youngbirders@scvas.org to get involved.

Busking: Do you play an instrument or sing? Help fundraise for SCVAS through busking: playing instruments or singing in street music performances! We busk on the Bay Area streets or at local festivals at least once a month. See upcoming events for the next date, time, and place. Contact youngbirders@scvas.org to get involved.

JOIN US

Interested in getting involved? Questions? We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at youngbirders@scvas.org or DM us on social media at @scv_ybc on Instagram and Santa Clara Valley Young Birders Club on Facebook. Join our email list below and follow us on social media to stay in the loop on upcoming events and receive our monthly newsletter. Club members will be invited to our Discord channels to communicate with fellow young birders.