Code of Ethics

The Bruin Birding Club (BBC) is a student-run organization united by a love for birds and the belief that birding and engaging with the outdoors should be safe and accessible to all. 

As bird lovers, we feel a responsibility to learn about and to care for the habitats that support birds. We therefore organize events and seek out opportunities to learn more about birds and about the ecological, cultural, and political histories that shape the landscapes around us. We also engage in work to protect bird populations and natural areas in and around campus. 

As an organization, we strive to provide a welcoming space where our members feel safe, respected, and valued, as well as connected to the natural world and part of a community. We are also committed to dismantling larger structures that impede safety, equity, and the ability of diverse groups of people to access and thrive in the outdoors.


Our Code of Ethics identifies what we as an organization value and what kind of community we want to build with our membership. We are committed to:


We strive to create an environment where our members feel safe to learn from each other and where their voices are heard and respected. We aim for a culture of mutual respect and reciprocity, in which we are committed to each others’ well-being and accountable to each other. We value different perspectives, backgrounds, and ways of knowing. We consider all members to be equal participants in the BBC community and welcome the input and participation of all members at our meetings. We aim to cultivate mutually beneficial and long-term relationships with our partnering organizations, who we consider to be members of our community. We build our community based on these ethics by being intentional about how we organize our events and engage with our members; we reference our Policies for Events and Field Trips prior to holding events and we require event participants to adhere to our Code of Conduct. 


We are committed to organizing accessible, safe, and welcoming events, and keeping our commitment to these ethics on the forefront of our minds. We do this by discussing how we will foster safety and inclusion through all of our events, spaces, and messaging (see Policies for Events and Field Trips; see Code of Conduct). We review these policies and codes annually. We aim to minimize participant costs to all of our events as much as possible; financial cost should never be a barrier for anyone to go birding. Further, we aim to provide all required equipment for our members to participate in our programming so that everyone has an equal opportunity to bird at our events. We also strive to recruit members through diverse advertising approaches and through collaboration with other organizations who share the same values as BBC. We will evaluate our recruitment practices annually as well. 


We expect our members to respect the animals, plants, and places we visit during our field trips. We expect members to follow the ABA Code of Birding Ethics, which includes minimizing stress to birds and acting with integrity and respect. We value, organize, and support conservation actions that are aligned with environmental equity and justice. We acknowledge and commit to learning about the land we are on and the traditional caretakers of that land. We also promote and organize conversations about the history of birdwatching and conservation to educate ourselves on the context of our work and actions. 


We are committed to advancing equality and the fight for justice wherever we can. This includes in our own work as well as by acting in solidarity with other organizations. We encourage our members to carry these values forth into their everyday lives and act as role models. We will use our platform to elevate other voices and will rescind support of folks and organizations if we learn that their actions and missions are counter to our ethics. We believe and support survivors.




Our Code of Conduct and our Policies for Events and Field Trips incorporate this Code of Ethics.

This Code of Ethics takes inspiration from the Feminist Bird Club’s Principles (https://www.feministbirdclub.org/principles).