the birders that audubon makes us miss

a review of kenn kaufman's "the birds that audubon missed"

a sargasso shearwater, formerly known as audubon’s shearwater, on a patch of sargasso.

these days, it’s rare that outsiders make big contributions to “western science.” i mean, when’s the last time that a passionate hobbyist discovered a new particle, cured a tropical disease, or uncovered the structure of an important protein? but there are exceptions—like ornithology.

hobbyist birders and those unaffiliated with scientific institutions—outsiders, you might say—generate vast troves of data, make new observations, publish valuable research, and even hold positions of authority that make them respected by birders and ornithologists alike. in fact, one of the field’s founders was an outsider: the enterprising, slave-owning, bird-discovering, grave-robbing charlatan-artist-birder-ornithologist, john james audubon. while i read kenn kaufman’s the birds that audubon missed, i thought a lot about the concept of the outsider, how it’s changed since audubon’s era, and the enduring legacy of the field’s first outsider.

let’s start with kenn’s book. the birds that audubon missed meanders between victorian-era ornithology and modern-day bird discourse through the lens of the question: why did some birds go un-described by 19th-century ornithologists? in some cases, the explorers merely didn’t get far enough west. in others, they didn’t realize two similar looking birds were different species. as the book progresses, it plays with the question in different ways—some birds may have disappeared from the united states before audubon’s time, while some birds he did claim to discover likely never existed at all. breaking up the narrative are interludes featuring kenn’s personal reckoning with audubon and attempts to create paintings in the famed artist’s style for those missed birds.

19th-century ornithologists didn’t have a great understanding of our spotted brown thrushes, like the cryptic bicknell’s thrush.

but the most memorable anecdote to me was the 1824 meeting in philadelphia where john james audubon permanently fractured his relationship with establishment ornithologists over a bird that doesn’t exist: the small-headed flycatcher. audubon and ornithologist alexander wilson both described seeing this drab bird: probably a warbler, olive-backed and yellow bellied with an eye ring, wingbars, and few other features. wilson described it in volume six of his american ornithology in 1812, having found them in orchards and swamps of the northeast. but in 1824, audubon claimed that he’d discovered the bird first in 1808, and that wilson had copied the image after visiting audubon in kentucky in 1810, publishing details of the bird without acknowledging audubon.

that 1824 claim was made amid audubon’s attempt to join the prestigious academy of natural sciences in philadelphia. and though he was nominated by three members, audubon was soundly rejected. vice president george ord wrote that “the members of the academy would have had no objection to mr. audubon, provided that they had thought him to be an honest man.”

rejected by the scientific establishment for his behavior, audubon cut his path as an entrepreneur and bird artist, rather than an ornithologist. he published tomes of his artwork with written descriptions, donning the guise of an american frontiersman as he advertised his book and solicited subscribers across europe. kind of like a tik tok influencer or multilevel marketing facebooker. he continued to make “discoveries” of new birds, presented in the pages of his popular books. today, we recognize wilson as the father of american ornithology, while audubon would instead become a world-renowned artist and the popular mascot of american birdwatching via his namesake society.

wilson’s phalaropes bear the name of alexander wilson, considered the founder of modern ornithology.

throughout the book, kenn presents asides featuring his attempts to create bird illustrations in audubon’s style, mostly falling up short, in his own opinion. but it was these parallels between audubon and kenn that got me thinking about the concept of the outsider in ornithology. kenn’s is the third birder name that birders learn after john james audubon and david sibley. like audubon, kenn is an outsider—a folk hero of sorts, who saw 650 birds across north america traveling mostly by hitchhiking. by his own admission, kenn “[winds] up attending ornithology conferences less often than birding festivals,” someone who is most famous for the mark he’s left on the general public. but he’s not a total outsider. he’s the national audubon society’s field editor and resident expert and a well-known artist responsible for a line of popular field guides.

american ornithology is a field where some of the most-recognized contributors are outsiders like audubon, eventually becoming welcomed and venerated by the establishment. to this day, a so-called outsider can continue to hold significant power in the field. artists like kenn kaufman and david sibley, tour guides like steve howell and the late tom johnson, world listers like peter kaestner, and passionate birders like alvaro jaramillo and amar ayyash have made permanent impacts in ornithology through various nontraditional routes. this is sort of the path that i am also hoping to take as a nature writer.

yet, as kenn touches on, and as the list of names i gave above might imply, the “outsider” label only goes so far. because in the grand scheme of things, these outsiders still have access to capital, institutions, communities, and more that allow them to make contributions—and they’re eventually welcomed in. but the field is still largely inaccessible to, and in some cases actively excludes, the same folks traditionally left out of establishment science, especially black and indigenous people of color. not to mention that 19th century ornithology, and 19th century biology in general, left behind a legacy of colonialism rooted in theft and overwriting indigenous knowledge. what is birding missing by not actively reaching out to these othered communities, incorporating their folk and indigenous knowledge, or centering them in their conservation work?

a red-throated loon with new york city housing authority houses—”projects”—in the distance

there are obvious ways that birding and ornithology are hostile to these communities—lionizing folks like audubon who owned slaves and robbed native american graves, hosting walks in areas inaccessible to public transit, or requiring access to a community that’s mostly white and wealthy. there are more subtle ways, too—a quick search would show you that many ornithological orgs have few black and indigenous people of color in their leadership. not to mention that the organization bearing audubon’s name, the national audubon society, has become synonymous with labor law violations and union busting—an organization led by evil people named after an evil person, if you ask me.

but it doesn’t have to be this way. we could start by reckoning with the legacy of 19th century colonizer ornithologists on these communities. and i don’t just mean renaming the birds—so what, the old establishment bird guys named all the birds and now the new establishment bird guys re-name all the birds? alongside that, i mean actively encouraging today’s outsiders to join. i mean including people on conservation organization boards who are actually connected to affected communities. i mean actively seeking and acting on the input of representatives from organizations that represent queer people, people of color, and local indigenous tribes. i mean making uncomfortable changes to accommodate—like recognizing unionization efforts, devising new kinds of programming and research studies, and yes, changing some names. i’ve been really excited to do volunteer and paid educator work for the new york city bird alliance which embodies what i mean, hosting walks for folks living in new york city housing authority housing and bi-lingual walks, or fostering other grassroots initiatives that feel inclusive of the nyc community at large.

so i take the sort of complementary view to the title of kenn’s book, one that kenn touches on, too. it’s interesting to think about the birds audubon missed… and also, the birders that we’re missing because of audubon. what if the right way to celebrate audubon’s legacy of influencing the field as an outsider is to toss out his legacy so that a new generation of outsiders can join?

this tricolored heron is shouting “REST IN PISS JOHN JAMES AUDUBON”

i encourage you to check out kenn’s book and if you do, to buy it from someplace other than amazon. and i hope you’ll agree that if we hope to continue pushing the field of ornithology forward, we’ll have to find new and potentially uncomfortable ways to engage those presently kept out by the scientific establishment.

postscript

hi all! this is yet another post i’ve been sitting on for months because writing about these issues is hard. but i’m happy-ish with it and glad for it to be out in the world and out of my drafts. for the next few posts you can expect something more… light and fun. or maybe i’ll write about something really sad.

but ever onward: it is FALL MIGRATION. the best migration, in my opinion. i am leading *so many* walks. a lot of folks ask me where they can find out about my walks… well, you can find out about them right here. please bookmark this page or save the below list if you want to see birds and more, and i hope to see some of you there!

9/8: 9:30am @ wave hill in the bronx ($17, register here)
9/10: 7:30am @ charles dana discovery center, central park (free, register here)
9/13: 5:30pm @ riverside park, 120th st entrance (free)
9/23: 7:30am @ north entrance prospect park (free, register here)
10/4: 5pm @ bryant park fountain (free)
10/6: 9am @ pelham bay park, aileen b. ryan recreational complex (free, register here)
10/12: 9am @ marine park salt marsh nature center (free)
10/13: 9:30am @ wave hill in the bronx ($, register here)
11/10: 9:30 @ canarsie park, seaview av + east 88th st (free, register here)
11/16, nighthunters bird trivia and owl prowl, 4:30pm @ wave hill in the bronx ($65, register here)

finally: i was in north carolina earlier this month and saw lots of cool sea animals, including pilot whales, my first-for-the-usa white-tailed tropicbirds, and my lifer sooty tern. but by far the coolest sighting was this flock of hudsonian godwits. these shorebirds undertake epic migrations, some legs thousands of miles nonstop. we managed to catch a flock on that journey 30 miles off of north carolina—their next stop likely south america. though distant and kinda blurry, this photo shows their signature long beaks, white rump patches, and white wing stripes.

a flock of hudsonian godwits on their way south.