Name: Cook County Birding Big Year: A Story of Passion, Disappearing Birds, and How We Save What's Left
Start: 2025-03-01T12:30:00-0600
End: 2025-03-01T13:00:00-0600

The Wild Things Conference Returns Saturday, March 1, 2025 - SOLD OUT

We’re thrilled to welcome you again to learn and share your expertise with our community. We’ve put together an exciting lineup of workshops and sessions from regional and national experts, plus meet & greets, video content, exhibitors, and sponsors. With over 140 presentations and discussion panels to choose from, the in-person program engages a diverse range of topics, research, and skills, and plenty of opportunities to meet with friends, old and new.

Thank you as well to our sponsors, scholarship supporters, and exhibitors who are all helping to make this another tremendously successful Wild Things.

Tickets for Wild Things 2025 are sold out. For additional information on the 2025 conference, visit wildthingscommunity.org.

**PLEASE NOTE: Some details are subject to change.**

NOTICE: Please be advised that photos and videos will be taken during Wild Things 2025. By attending, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded. Your attendance on this event constitutes your agreement to the use of any resulting media by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves for promotional, marketing, or any other purpose in perpetuity, without further approval or any compensation.

Saturday March 1, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm CST

Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon Society

In 2024, Tarik set out on a Cook County “Big Year:” a personal challenge to identify as many unique species of birds as possible within a calendar year. With a retelling of his adventure, Tarik will impart his learnings about Cook County’s diverse natural spaces, the growing birding community, the steep decline of birds in our region, and how the environmental community can work to better protect our avian friends for generations to come. As a member of The Nature Conservancy in Illinois’ government relations team, he will weave in potential policy and advocacy solutions to our worsening biodiversity crisis.

Presenters

Tarik Shahzad

Government Relations Associate, The Nature Conservancy in Illinois

I'm an environmental policy advocate for The Nature Conservancy's Illinois chapter, lifelong nature lover, and Cook County Big Year record breaker (2024). My professional interests include environmental advocacy, climate and conservation policy, connecting communities to nature, and... Read More →

Saturday March 1, 2025 12:30pm - 1:00pm CST
Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon Society

Wildlife, Intro

Session Session Block C: 12:30 - 1 PM

Wild Things 2025

Tarik Shahzad

Attendees (228)

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