Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival Special Events

Opening Reception
Friday, January 17, 2020 5:00-6:30pm
2020 Reception
For Bird Festival Registrants
Enjoy wine and cheese and meet fellow birders in the Bird Festival Bazaar area. Browse through the vendor booths featuring binoculars and scopes, books and CDs, garden art, watercolors and nature photography, wood carvings, jewelry, clothing and more!

Keynote: Stephen Shunk
Saturday, January 18, 2020, 7:00-8:30pm
Cuesta Performing Arts Center
How Woodpeckers Can Save The World!
Woodpeckers represent one of the most specialized bird families in the world, and these woodland carpenters perform critical ecological services in North America’s forested habitats; nowhere else on Earth are woodpeckers such important contributors to forest ecology. Join author, naturalist, field biologist, and woodpecker fanatic, Steve Shunk, for an exciting journey into the lives and times of California’s woodpeckers. Steve will share secrets of woodpecker anatomy and stories of their natural histories as he interprets the keystone roles that woodpeckers play across the Golden State.

Keynote: Krisztina Scheeff
Sunday, January 19, 2020, 7:00-8:30pm
Cuesta Performing Arts Center
Dancing With The Grebes
Called the ‘Grebe Whisperer’ by many of her students and fellow professional photographers, wildlife and nature photographer Krisztina Scheeff has spent years studying and photographing grebes on Lake Hodges in San Diego County. The unique mating behavior of grebes, rushing, is one of the most photographed of all animal behaviors. Krisztina will take you on a photographic journey into the world of grebes and provide details on why and how they ‘walk on water’ to find a mate. Krisztina will also share stunning photographs of some of her other wildlife favorites.