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Birding and wildlife enthusiasts congregated at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Naples over the weekend to celebrate Southwest Florida’s diverse wildlife during the 4th Annual Southwest Florida Birding and Wildlife Festival.

From Friday through Sunday, the festival included field trips to local wildlife hotspots and seminars on plants, birding and wildlife. Notable naturalist author Scott Weidensaul, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, gave the festival’s keynote address on Friday night.

“This weekend is about helping people learn more about the valuable resources and wildlife in this area,” said Rookery Bay Research Translator Renee Wilson.

Randy McCormick, Rookery Bay’s Education Coordinator, directed the weekend’s festival. The field trips, spread out over 18 locations, were a key part of the festival, McCormick said.

Two field trip locations were on Marco Island.

City of Marco Island Environmental Specialist Nancy Richie led a burrowing owl tour. Also scheduled was a birding walk at Tigertail Beach.

“Tigertail trips are always great,” said McCormick. “It’s an important birding area for the entire east coast.”

The festival, now in its fourth year, has expanded from what used to be a strictly birding event.

“In the past we’ve focused primarily on birds. This year we’ve expanded on the program to include other kinds of wildlife,” Wilson said.

It was an attempt to broaden the festival’s audience, Wilson said.

In addition to the broadened focus, the festival expanded from a two-day event into a three-day affair with more field trips and seminars.

One of the new attractions at this year’s festival was a seminar on Florida butterflies from author and butterfly gardener Mike Malloy.

Malloy, who has written a book called “Butterfly Gardening Made Easy for Southwest Florida,” preached the values of providing good plant life for butterflies during a Friday seminar.

“Butterflies are beautiful,” said Malloy. “They are flying flowers.”

During a slide show presentation, Malloy paired Floridian butterflies with their host plants, stressing the important connection between plants and wildlife.

“It’s addicting,” Malloy said of butterfly gardening. “Once you start doing it … people are going to think you’re a lunatic.”

Malloy has a shoulder full of tattooed butterflies to prove his enthusiasm.

But it wasn’t just the speakers who were diehard about birding and wildlife.

“We have two different kinds of participants,” Wilson said. “We have quite a few hardcore nature enthusiasts; but we also have the casually interested people who are here to expand their knowledge.”

Elaine and Jack Beringer from Cincinnati, Ohio, have made every one of the festivals so far.

Elaine Beringer said she and her husband come down out of a desire to see more birds on the field trips and learn more from the seminars.

“We learn a lot from the speakers,” she said.

Joe Barland, who owns a house off the coast of Rookery Bay, was among the dozens of volunteers who helped make the festival run smoothly.

Barland, who introduced speakers at seminars, casually bird watches from his house.

“It’s an absolute parade of nature that goes on outside my back door,” said Barland.

Festival Director Randy McCormick called the birding and wildlife festival a “celebration” of Southwest’s Florida biodiversity.

“The celebration is to make a connection between people and wildlife,” McCormick said.

And once people start to appreciate the wildlife in this area, McCormick said, they will feel a greater obligation to take care of the environment both people and animals call home.