birding for a better world with the feminist bird club
actually, there *is* a right way to look at birds, imo
buy the feminist bird club’s birding for a better world!
when i agreed to make a video about herons for a journalism school assignment back in 2016, i did not care about birds.
i wouldn’t say i disliked them—i have an entry in my harry potter-themed journal from when i was 10 years old documenting my experience seeing california condors. but i told people i disliked birds. as a nonbinary, 24-year-old new yorker, birds represented the opposite of everything i cared about. first, birds belonged in nature, and i did not think new york city was nature. second, i thought that birders were old guys in khaki, not young queers in spandex and platform boots. clearly, i’ve since been proven wrong—thanks, in part, to the feminist bird club.
my transformation started when i learned that nyc audubon had painted lawn flamingos to attract wading birds to an island in the ny harbor, a silly-enough premise that i decided it was worth pursuing for a j-school video assignment. i had a lot of trouble finding the herons as a non-birder, so i convinced nyc parks employee heather liljengren to take me to see a great blue heron nest in a staten island park. i cannot overstate my shock at seeing the three-foot creature emerge from its enormous nest. it was the first time i seriously considered that the largest city in the country wasn’t just home to pigeons and seagulls—it was habitat for the strangest animal i could remember seeing in the wild to that point.
i noticed a lot of herons afterward—i’d even go on walks just to look for herons— though i hadn’t totally shaken the feeling that birds weren’t for me. but soon, my now-spouse and then long-distance partner moved to new york city. having never lived in the same city, we decided we needed a couple’s hobby so we’d have something to talk about. britt—also nonbinary—had a friend who worked for the audubon society and suggested birding. it was much easier to go birding with another person like me around, so we bought binoculars and started going on guided bird outings. i downloaded ebird and kept a list of the birds i’d seen.
but it was the folks we met through the feminist bird club who would transform birding for us forever. we attended a pride-themed bird outing led by national audubon society’s martha harbison, where we met the feminist bird club’s founder, molly adams (who had coincidentally been featured among other “young urban birders” in a story by the new york times the same day). we started making our first birding friends through the feminist bird club, and found that birding was brimming with people who didn’t look like jack black, owen wilson, and steve martin. we hadn’t just found a hobby. we’d found a community.
most importantly, these folks of changed my perception of what counts as birding. the members of the feminist bird club were committed not only to making birding inclusive, but to making the world a better place through birding by espousing good birding ethics, practicing mindfulness in one’s relationship with wildlife and nature, and raising lots of funds for organizations i cared about.
through the feminist bird club, birding became part of my identity, and a way that i could connect more deeply with my city, with like-minded people, and with the world. i came to understand birding as an obligation to the land i birded on (almost always land whose indigenous inhabitants were killed and/or forcibly removed by european colonizers) and an obligation to the animals i was observing, many of which continue to be threatened by humans. i realized that as a birder, it was my duty to share these lessons and principles with others, and to ensure that the spaces i created matched those that were created for me and britt.
so i’m extremely excited to see that this week, feminist bird club leaders molly adams and sydney golden anderson released their book birding for a better world, a book describing the club’s ethos and how to bird with their principles in mind. they discuss how to find and experience birds, but also how to build a birding culture that welcomes all kinds of birders, how to be a steward of birds and the environment, and how to use birding as a means to empower others and make the world a better place. it’s a book that asks to be brought into the field, with prompts that help connect you more deeply with birds and locate you in the broader birding and non-birding world.
today, i think of these lessons when i plan bird outings, when i teach others about birds, and often when i’m out birding on my own. i also think of them basically any time i see a bird take a bath, a reminder to fully immerse myself and pay attention to the details of the world, my place in it, and how living things relate with and rely on one another. i encourage you to check out the book and hope you’ll take its principles to heart, too. i also hope that you’ll consider supporting your local feminist bird club chapter, and think about how you, too, can use nature observation as a means to build a better world.
postscript
i have some upcoming outings and events!
the young conservationist council of nyc audubon is hosting bird trivia TONIGHT, september 7, 7:30pm at the ditty in astoria.
i’m leading a bird outing at riverside park on friday, september 8 at 5:30pm. meet at 120th street and riverside drive. this trail traverses a flight of steps and dirt path.
i’m leading a bird outing in prospect park on saturday, september 16th at 4pm. meet at the stranahan monument at the north entrance of the park. this trail traverses a paved path with steps, though it can be done without steps to accommodate.