For the 2023-2024 school year, the Associated Student Body has approved 29 new clubs. The Accolade’s cub reporters from the beginning journalism class will report on each new group in alphabetical order. For the previous ones that have already been posted, be sure to go to the Feature section.

Birds of a feather flock together.

According to Wikipedia, that cliche first appeared in 1545 “when William Turner used a version of it in his anti-Catholic satire, ‘The Rescuing of the Papist Fox.’”

But to junior Cameron Martinez, the idiom is best remembered in one of Martinez’s favorite movies, “Rio 2,” when one of the main characters, Blu – a spix’s macaw – delivers the phrase to his fellow feathered creature Jewel that birds of blue feathers stick together.  

He said he enjoyed the film that he first watched 8 years ago because of his interest in birds, which began when he was 8 years old.

“A while ago I started going bird-watching with my dad; it wasn’t like we tried to go birdwatching, we just went to the park and there were birds there and I would draw them,” Martinez said.

And then six years later, his father — a retired apartment manager and carpenter — introduced him to birdhouse construction.

The two would find wood materials from his dad’s leftovers from previous projects, and they would use a hammer and nails to assemble the aviaries; so far, they have built three, one of which he gave away years ago as a gift to his uncle as a housewarming gift, Martinez said. The other two remain in his back yard. 

“My dad and I came up with the design of the weird shape, but it was mostly him because he really likes weird-shaped, “enchanted” houses like he would describe it,” the president said.

Then in September, during the fall semester of the 2023-2024 school year, Martinez came up with the idea of forming a club that would go by the same name as the cliche that he heard in “Rio 2.”

“I had experience making birdhouses with my dad, and I realized that it was a great way to support the biodiversity of birds in my own home,” the junior said. “I wanted to see if I could introduce that into my school as well.”

After submitting and presenting his proposal to the Associated Student Body last semester, the club was approved on Sunday, Oct. 22, said Martinez, the group’s president.

“Before I started this club I was interested in birds, but upon being involved, I have further educated myself and become more passionate in the ways that humans affect birds and cause them to become endangered,” he said. 

By the end of the school year, Martinez said the club aims to reach various goals, ranging from organizing birdhouse building workshops at Hillcrest Park in Fullerton on a Saturday to putting birdhouses on school campus trees to hosting birdwatching socials and community service opportunities.

The club president said he sought approval last November from assistant principal Heather Bradley to decorate some of the campus trees with aviaries.

“They agreed to the birdhouses around campus on the condition that students can’t hang them because there is too much liability in that, so they will hang it for [us],” Martinez said.

Junior Hannah Saab said she joined the club because she wanted to support her friend. 

“Hopefully, in the future, we can build birdhouses around campus and spread more awareness of the birds and nature near our campus through it,” Saab said. 

Martinez encourages all students to consider joining his club.

“No actual skills or qualities are needed for someone to excel in Birds of a Feather,” he said. “Just a passion for birds and our ecosystem.”

Birds of a Feather meets every Wednesday at lunch in Room 74. For more information, contact Martinez at [email protected].