About CWB

Conversations With Birds

Conversations With Birds is a personal initiative of Borys Daniljchenko, Environmental Educator (Retired), Moreton Bay, Quandamooka Country, Queensland.

Borys's approach to environmental education has its foundation in 1975, when he helped establish Queensland's first purpose-built field study centre at Jacobs Well. Over five decades working with children, communities, and conservation organisations, he has remained convinced of one thing: emotional connection precedes action. You do not protect what you do not love. You do not love what you do not know.

CWB was built to create the conditions for that knowing — through stories accurate enough to trust, characters vivid enough to care about, and conversations honest enough to be worth having.

I'm here for the birds. Not about them.— The Shorebird Steward's Creed

The Field Naturalist Series

The Field Naturalist Series is authored and illustrated by Liz Daniljchenko, early childhood educator. Current titles: Willie Wagtail (No. 1), Kookaburra (No. 2), Magpie (No. 3). Published under the CWB imprint.

The Science to Kin Pathway

CWB's educational framework follows a deliberate pathway: Science → Story → Emotional Connection → Caring → Self-Activation → Kin. Each step is necessary. Science without story stays on the page. Story without science becomes sentimentality. The pathway closes when a child — or adult — begins to think of a bird not as a species but as someone they know.

We protect what we love. We love our kin. The birds are still waiting to be recognised as kin.

Conversations With Birds is created on the Country of the Quandamooka people, who have maintained their relationship with this land for more than 25,000 years. We acknowledge their custodianship and their ongoing connection to Country, waters, and sky.