of birds when innovative conservationist Paul Butler flies into Bermuda next week.

In addition to holding a workshop for environmental groups and teachers, Mr.

Butler will also give a public, illustrated lecture.

Credited with much of the spectacular success experienced by several Caribbean islands in their bird preservation and habitat programmes, Mr. Butler, who was born and educated in England, was awarded citizenship by St. Lucia in recognition of his services to that island.

Now attached to the Caribbean section of the RARE (Rare Animal Rescue Effort) Centre for Tropical Conservation, which has headquarters in Pennsylvania, Mr.

Butler and his work has been featured in Newsweek and American Birds as well as the BBC's Survival television series. He will also be the subject of an hour-long National Audubon Society TV special hosted by film star Lou Gossett Jr., due to be shown on US public television and Turner Broadcasting this autumn.

Mr. Richard Winchell, Principal Curator of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo says: "Mr. Butler has an excellent background in conservation education programmes and the Zoological Society is very interested in hearing about the schemes he has implemented.

"He will help us look at things here from a different perspective and we are also setting up meetings for him with David Wingate and the National Trust.'' Promoting Protection Through Pride provides an appropriate title for his Bermuda lecture, as this has been the philosophy behind his approach to conservation ever since he arrived on St. Lucia 14 years ago.

Not that Mr. Butler relies on lectures to get his message across -- he was a pioneer of the grass-roots approach, and made it his business to make every St. Lucian citizen actually care about the fate of its fast-disappearing national bird, the Jacquot parrot.

Into clubs, churches and schools he went, and garnering support from radio and TV stations, Mr. Butler commissioned songs with reggae themes. On occasion, he has even resorted to puppet shows and dressed up his wife in parrot feathers in his effort to raise awareness and help bring rare birds back from the brink of extinction.

He also introduced the Jacquot Express, a mobile "interpretive centre'' that has travelled back and forth over St. Lucia, bringing its exhibitions on environmental problems to every corner of the island on a regular basis.

Since Mr. Butler began his blitz on conservation awareness, the St. Lucian parrot has rebounded from about 100 birds to more than 250 today.

"By getting the islanders so passionately involved, it now hurts their pride to kill a bird,'' he says -- quite an achievement for the Caribbean islands, where 90 percent of the world's endangered birds are to be found, but who have been ruthlessly plundered by the lucrative international bird trade.

With the RARE programme now extended to other Caribbean islands, it is now hoped to target the birds and rain forests of Latin America.

Mr. Butler's lecture at Pembroke Sunday School takes place on Friday, May 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets at $6 are available from the Aquarium, the new Visitors' Centre at the Botanical Gardens or The Camera Store on Queen Street.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, May 9 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Further information on the workshop can be obtained by calling 236-6763 between 6 and 7 p.m. daily. Mr. Butler's visit is being sponsored by the Bank of Bermuda Ltd.