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Tom Pincelli, a.k.a. "Father Bird"

November 9, 2011
The Birding Priest of the Lower Rio Grande Valley
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Green Jay Expand Image
© Ashok Khosla

Father Tom Pincelli is a Catholic priest known to many as "Father Bird." He's a birder and conservationist in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Southern Texas. One of his favorite birds is this Green Jay. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival starts today. Can't make it to Texas? There may be a festival near you. Find out at BirdWatchersDigest.com.

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BirdNote®
Tom Pincelli, The Birding Priest

Interviewed by Ellen Blackstone

This is BirdNote!
[Ambient sounds calls of Plain Chachalacas and Great Kiskadees]
Today we travel to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Southern Texas, to talk to Father Tom Pincelli, a Catholic priest known to many as “Father Bird.” He’s an avid birder and conservationist.
Do birds and conservation fit together? Oh, most certainly! [Great Kiskadee in background] There’s a number of things the listeners can do if they care about birds. Obviously, do everything you possibly can to keep as much habitat viable as possible. That’s of critical importance. But in your own back yard. Make sure that windows are covered in such a way that we don’t have too many bird-strikes. Also offer food and water and cover. If you’ve got a cat, try to keep it indoors.
Thanks, Father Tom! We can make a difference, right in our own back yards. And what birds do Father Tom find most interesting in his yard?
One of them is the Green Jay. [Call of the Green Jay] An absolutely stunning bird, a combination of blue and black and green and yellow. A typical jay… raucous. … But a bird that will knock your socks off. I mean the colors are just iridescent! [Call of the Green Jay] 
You can see a Green Jay [Call of the Green Jay] at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. It’s one of the premier birding festivals in the US, and it starts today. Come to our website, BirdNote.org, for a list of bird festivals all over the country. I’m Mary McCann.
                                                                            ###
Call of the Green Jay provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.  Recorded by G.A. Keller
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2011 Tune In to Nature.org   November 2011   Narrator: Mary McCann

ID# pincellit-02-2009-11-12-MM

Ellen Blackstone
Writer
Mary McCann
Narrator
Ashok Khosla
Photographer
Tags: festival, gardening, habitat protection, Texas

Related Resources

Green Jay - More at All About BirdsRio Grande Valley Birding FestivalBirdWatchersDigest.com

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Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas)

Cyanocorax yncas

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Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

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