BirdsCaribbean has celebrated the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) for the past 20 years with the encouragement and support of a diverse group of partners throughout the Caribbean. The festival highlights the region’s rich bird community, with special attention given to the 171 species found only in the Caribbean. Each year the CEBF activities are planned around a theme. 

This year the theme is “Sing, Fly, Soar—Like a Bird!” Due to the coronavirus pandemic we are celebrating virtually again. Virtual events often leave little room for meaningful interaction. However, it is extremely important to us that we provide our members and partners with the opportunity to share their experiences with us. 

Therefore we invite you to tell us, in your own words, what this year’s theme means to you! Whether you are camera shy or not, the guidelines below will help you capture a compelling video. All you will need is a smartphone, laptop, or camera capable of recording video. There will be no need for fancy equipment or spending long hours editing. We need less than a minute of your time! 

All suitable submissions will be used to create a video collage which will be shared at the end of the CEBF 2021 on the BirdsCaribbean website and social media accounts.

Guidelines and Tips for Creating your Short Video

Instructions for the video content:

• Have fun! Remember this is not a school project or work assignment.
• Speak in your native language; if possible, please send us the English script if it is not English.
• First introduce yourself: your name and where you’re from
• Then let us know what our theme “Sing, Fly, Soar—Like A Bird!” means to you. Smile, speak naturally, from the heart, and feel free to be creative! Some ideas: You can talk about how birds inspire you, how you got into birding, what you love about birds, your birding activities, how birds changed your life, your “spark” bird, why birds matter, how birds unite us, how you relate to this theme personally, your work conserving, studying or educating about birds, etc. Do your best to relate it to the theme, and don’t be shy about conveying your enthusiasm!

Instructions for recording the video:

• Videos should be up to one minute in length – two or three sentences is great (20-30 seconds). If you need a little longer to tell your story, that’s okay too!
• If possible, shoot your video with a DSLR camera, iPhone, or smartphone at high resolution.
• If you shoot the video from a phone, use landscape (horizontal), not portrait (vertical) mode. It’s best to place yourself in the left or right ⅓ of the image, rather than the center.
• Shoot from about an arm’s distance from the phone so that the video covers till your stomach and make sure there is a little headspace on the top.
• Check your lighting. Natural light outdoors in nature works best (the sun should be behind the camera). If using a lamp or other light source make sure it is in front of you- NOT behind, overhead, or to the side. 
• Check your sound.  Make sure the audio is clear and there is minimal or no background noise. 
• Ask a friend or family member to handle the camera work while you focus on delivering your best performance.
• Optional: If it’s helpful, feel free to check out some past video testimonials on our website or youtube channel. 

Videos must NOT contain:

• Copyrighted material (such as music tracks, photos) without necessary authorizations.
• Material that is inappropriate, indecent, obscene or hateful

Instructions for sending us your video: 

• Email video, consent form (if needed), and English script (if needed) to Aliya.Hosein@birdscaribbean.org. Note: the file may be too large to send via email; you may also send it via Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, OneDrive, etc. Please send reasonably high resolution, e.g., 1080 px).
• For adults, by submitting your video you give BirdsCaribbean consent to use the  video for purposes specified above. 
• For those under the adult age in your country, the minor’s video must be accompanied with a consent form signed by a parent or guardian – download the form here.

Submit your videos By Monday, May 31, 2021.