Black Birders Week at Chollas Lake Park

WorldBeat Cultural Center and San Diego Bird Alliance invite you to celebrate Black Birders Week, a nationwide movement that centers Black voices, joy, and belonging in outdoor spaces. Created to uplift and support Black birders and nature lovers, Black Birders Week is a powerful call for visibility, connection, and cultural affirmation in nature.

For 2025, Black Birders Week carries the powerful theme “Grounded in Community,” celebrating Black joy, liberation, and collective power in the outdoors. Our event takes place on Day 7—Community Chorus—a day dedicated to lifting our voices together through shared stories, reflection, and celebration in nature.

🐦 Bird Theme – Honoring the Sparrow and the Crow

Black Birders Week 2025 honors the Sparrow Family—resilient, adaptive, and thriving in connection. Like sparrows, we find strength in community, lifting our voices together to transform the outdoors into spaces of belonging and liberation. Often dismissed as “little brown birds,” sparrows embody qualities of resilience and solidarity that deeply resonate with the Black experience.

WorldBeat Cultural Center also honors the American Crow, a bird often misunderstood and marginalized—much like Black communities in urban spaces. Despite negative stereotypes, crows are highly intelligent, social, and resourceful. Their story mirrors our own: thriving against the odds and creating beauty through adaptability and ancestral knowledge.

♿ Accessibility & Amenities

• The walk follows flat, paved, and hard-packed dirt paths suitable for wheelchairs and strollers
• Bathrooms and drinking water are available on site
• Free parking is available near the trailhead
• Public Transit: Accessible via Bus Route 955 and MTS Trolley Orange Line to Euclid Ave, with a transfer to bus or short rideshare
• Binoculars will be available to borrow for participants

Whether you’re new to birding or simply seeking connection in nature, this outing offers a space to learn about local birds, try out the Merlin Bird ID app, and reflect on the meaning of place, healing, and being Black in the outdoors.

What to Expect:

• A slow, mindful nature outing through the lake
• Birdwatching and identification tips
• Restful pauses for reflection and connection
• 📱 Guidance on using the Merlin Bird ID app

🦆 All ages + experience levels welcome
🦜 Free and open to the public