Magalí Rodríguez Farías
08/04/2021 2:17 PM
Clarín.com
Zonal
Updated 08/04/2021 2:17 PM
About 30 years ago, the town of
Del Viso
,
Pilar district
, located in the North Zone of Greater Buenos Aires, was baptized as
"the city of birds
." The initiative had come from a local journalist, who after attending a bird exhibition discovered the diversity of species in his district. But during the last time, the neighbors of the place began to notice how this was changing.
Andrea Selinger
(51) lived all her life in Del Viso, she is a lover of plants and animals.
"Nature is the most wonderful thing that exists, being in contact with it sustains me and gives life," he synthesizes.
In 2017 he began to notice that there were fewer and fewer birds in his garden, he was also struck by the
level of deforestation
to build new neighborhoods.
It was there that he decided to give a home to the birds that were left without their trees.
"Because of the indiscriminate logging, many species of birds emigrated and are no longer in Pilar. There it occurred
to
me to
put little houses to attract them
and have a safe place to nest, protect and feed themselves," explains Andrea.
Andrea after finishing one of her bird shelters.
The
first bird house
that he built was made with some forgotten wood that he had in his house. First, she chose an easy model to start with, cut the wood with the help of her husband and put it together little by little. Inside he placed a protector so that the materials would not be damaged, and then he decorated and painted it with details. "I always use water-safe products that do not harm or affect the environment," clarifies the
neighbor from Del Viso.
Without knowing it, that little house would be
the first of thousands.
He placed it in the gallery of his house.
As the hours passed, he was surprised to find a bird inside that was building its nest.
"The joy was enormous," he says.
And he adds: "There I saw that what I was doing worked, and I thought I
had to build more.
The second was one with a feeder already. I put seeds in it and sparrows came with their young."
Andrea took an introductory
course in bird watching.
Its objective was to know in depth the different species of the district, the behaviors, and even the ways to build a nest.
"It is really amazing to know the secrets of each bird, and to be able to differentiate them simply by the shape of the beak or by how they feed," he explains.
Andrea Selinger during the last stage of the process of building her birdhouses.
As time went by, he saw the good impact the shelters had.
He began to publish them on his social networks and decided to start selling some under the slogan of
"No more caged birds
.
"
"In addition to giving a refuge to those birds without nests, the objective is to show that you can have birds in the houses, but free. I want to promote their freedom and say
no to cages and rubber plants,
" says Andrea.
Currently, he spends his days in his workshop while building houses with
up to thirteen nests at the same time,
and he looks for new models and ideas so that the birds feel comfortable inside their new homes.
"We must make people aware of the problems of fauna and flora, both in Pilar and in the rest of the country,
respect trees and animals
. Nature can live without men but men cannot live without nature" , concludes the neighbor from PIlar.
The walls of Andrea's workshop are full of birdhouses of different sizes and models.
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