We are delighted to announce that we are working hard to organize our Second Women’s Big Day at Manu Biological Station!

Our first event on March 8 this year was a real success, and we had a wonderful time with almost 20 women from Huacaria, Pilcopata, Cusco, Lima, and beyond. We had a wonderful time celebrating birds and femininity.

Some of our women guests, who had never birdwatched before, were thrilled to see even the most common birds through binoculars for the very first time. We strengthened past friendships and made new ones. We had the opportunity to learn from Doris Valencia and Claudia Torres, not only as birders but as life guides. They shared their experiences as tour guides and Sustainable Tourism professor. We enjoyed every minute of the experience, and we felt that, as women, we can and must work for the planet starting from our surroundings.

But our mission is far from being complete. From Manu Biostation, we want to keep offering women from Huacaria, Queros, Pilcopata, Salvación, and Patria the opportunity of improving their livelihood without impacting the land they call home. To be an example for their family and their community. They have the chance to change their future and build in harmony with nature their destiny into a sustainable way of living and thriving. They can break the cycle. They can close the gender gap.

The second version of the Women’s Big Day at Manu Biological Station will host more than 20 women from the native communities and towns close to the station. It will teach them the basics of birding and learning from women who, just like them, know how hard it can be to make a name in a man’s world. By participating in this event, women will gain the confidence they need to stand up for what they want.

It doesn’t matter if we were relegated during the past; we want to do things our way now for our future and the future generations to come. We want to change history for our community, and we want to leave a legacy for the generations to come.

Here are some figures from our first event if you want to check them out.

• 5000 US raised for the event

• 19 women in total participated in the event

• 2 women from Huacaria

• 6 women from Pillcopata

• 6 women from Cusco and Puerto Maldonado

• Two women bird guides

• 133 bird species seen

• 23 uploaded lists to e-bird

• One Basics of birding and Nature tourism workshop

• One set of binoculars given away among the participants

• Tons of lessons and experiences shared

Now, we are 100% interested in repeating it in 2024 with your help.

Meet the team!!!!

Doris Valencia Puclla

Doris is the only woman guide certified for birding tours in Peru. Yes, she is the only woman guide certified in Peru. She owns her very own birding company, and she is the director of the Pacha Conservancy Project, which works with reforestation, outdoor education, research, and community outreach in the fragile cloud forest north of Cusco-Peru. She will be joining us again in 2024, and we are very honored to have her as part of this exciting event.

Claudia Torres-Sovero

Claudia is the academic on this birding team. She brings the Sustainable Tourism topic as an attractive and appealing subject as well as a fundamental one. Her passion for birds started early in her childhood and has accompanied her throughout her life. Now, she has another goal: to make birding accessible to every woman she can reach.

Juliana Andrea Morales Monje

Feminist and biologist with a strong interest in vector-borne diseases, molecular biology, and now a draw for birds that increases daily. Juliana is the organizer of the Women's Big Day events at Manu Biological Station, Peru.

Here are some videos from our First Women's Big Day!

Watching a yellow-bellied seedeater ( ) at Manu Biological Station during Women's Big Day.