This event was recorded on January 14, 2026 at ACES Hallam Lake, produced by ACES, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
About the Presentation and Speakers
Avians have been migrating between North and South America for millions of years, linking the hemispheres like only birds can do. In November 2025, people in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina and Aspen bridged this journey in a new way: through our Sister Cities program and our shared love of birds.
A small group of birders from the Aspen community traveled to Argentina and were hosted and guided by birders in Bariloche, facilitated through our Sister Cities relationship. In the process, they experienced a common interest through the lens of a new culture, explored iconic northern Patagonian ecosystems and the birds that inhabit them, and built bridges that promise to support an enduring connection.
The Sister Cities program was formalized in the United States in the mid 1950s by President Eisenhower, with the goal of building citizen diplomacy at a grassroots level toward a peaceful world. The power of personal connections is strong enough to tackle the world’s most pressing issues, and is more relevant than ever today. Fostering these global relationships is the mission of this organization which helps people discover countless ways to understand one another. For Aspen and our many sister cities, past and current exchanges have been based on students and education, the medical profession, art, ski patrolling, public lands, and more. In this first exchange based on birding, participants explored birdlife and related topics, including conservation, the human-nature relationship, climate change, and ecology.
Rebecca Weiss is a senior naturalist and birding guide with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and author of the local guidebook Birds of Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley. She helped coordinate this birding exchange trip, along with our Bariloche liaisons and four local birders who traveled to Bariloche last fall. Rebecca will share the stories of this rich exchange experience: from watching Andean Condors glide to cliff roosts and meeting young naturalist educators at a local bird reserve, to spotting flamingos on the Patagonian steppe and joining a birding club event at a Nature Conservancy-owned estancia. Enjoy the stories and imagine future possibilities.