We are delighted to announce the winners of 2011 Mongolia Wild Bird Photo Contest.

2011 was another successful year for the annual contest. A total of 67 wonderful photos of 52 species were submitted by 17 participants from four countries, Germany, USA, Finland, and Mongolia. Again participants were people with many different backgrounds, birdwatchers, ornithologists, students, teachers, tour guides, and biologists. The winners have been selected based on the quality and uniqueness of photos.

A photo of Siberian Crane by D.Gansukh won the 1st place of this year's contest followed by Amur Falcon by Martin Grimm, and Great Egret by E.Bolormunkh as 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Also photos of Red-necked Stint by Mathias Putze and Mongolian Ground Jay by N.Batsaikhan took special prizes.

The goal of the annual Mongolia Wild Bird Photo Contest is to raise public awareness, knowledge and appreciation of birds and their habitat conservation, and to promote bird watching in Mongolia.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL 2011 PHOTO CONTEST PHOTOS

Vultures are an ecologically vital group of birds that face a range of threats in many areas that they occur. Populations of many species are under pressure and some species are facing extinction.

An international vulture awareness day was organized throughout world on September 3rd 2011. WSCC participated in this important event by organizing lectures in middle and high schools. During the vent, researchers from the Center gave a series of lectures about Old and New World vultures, their conservation importance, and ecology to the students at five schools including two ecology oriented schools, Mother Nature and Shavi Complex School, in Ulaanbaatar.

Main aim of the lectures was to deliver information about this group of birds to young people. We hope our activity have helped Mongolian youths to improve their ecological awareness and understand challenges in endangered species conservation. We intend to celebrate The International Vulture Awareness Day annually and broaden our activity during this special occasion.