Racism in Birding

Racism is real, and has very real impacts on people’s lives in the US and around the world. In birding and the outdoors — a historically white-dominated space — this is felt acutely by many Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) birders. It’s important to remember that many birders with disabilities and other health concerns are BIPOC too (this is called intersectionality); in order to be inclusive we must address racism in birding.

Below are some resources to learn more about race and racism in birding (particularly for white or white-passing folks); resources to help increase racial diversity in birding; and resources that may be helpful for BIPOC birders.

Learning about racism in birding and the outdoors

• Watch the National Audubon Society’s Facebook Live Birding While Black: A candid conversation panels from #BlackBirdersWeek in June 2020:

  • First session

  • Second session

• Watch American Birding Association’s Birding for Everyone: A discussion with John C. Robinson, Tykee James and Nicole Jackson.

• Latino Conservation Week in July celebrates Latinx who love nature! In 2020, an online panel discussion was held called Birds as Connection, which explored the connections many Latinx people feel with birds and their countries of origin.

• A profile of Dr J. Drew Lanham, Force of Nature: How Dr. J. Drew Lanham is changing birding, by Nic Brown, Garden & Gun, August/September 2018.

• Birding is blooming: So where are the Black birders? Written by Glenn Nelson, Yes! magazine, March 2019.

• Meet Corina Newsome in Black birding is about hope, by Kathleen Hou, for The Cut, June 2020.

• Meet Sheridan Alford in Sheridan Alford: Environmental Educator, Black Birders Week, from PBS Nature, June 2020.

• Why birding matters — now more than ever, written by Alicia Underlee Nelson for Midwest Magazine, February 2021.

• An article by Canadian Jacqueline L. Scott from summer 2020: What you should know about Black birders.

• Watch this three minute illustrated interview with Christian Cooper about birding as a Black man, from PBS NOVA.

• Christian Cooper wrote a free 16-page comic, published by DC Comics, about a young Black man going bird watching, and how the history of police shootings affect his experience of birding. You can read about it in this New York Times article, and download the comic to read here.

• Article published by the American Bird Conservancy by Dr J. Drew Lanham, 2020: A Black Birder's Ramble Through The Thicket Of Opinion On Social Movement And Bird Conservation

• Article published in Vanity Fair by Dr J. Drew Lanham, 2020: Nine new revelations for the Black American bird watcher.

• Follow-up interview with Dr Lanham published in Vanity Fair: “How am I going to be perceived as a Black man with binoculars?”: J. Drew Lanham on Christian Cooper and the Rules for the Black Bird watcher.

• Day Scott, Black birder and photographer in Wyoming, shares how challenging it can be for her to go birding by herself and why Black Birders Week was so significant, published in June 2020: On Race and Birding.

• The Washington Post published this article in 2020: People called police on this black birdwatcher so many times that he posted custom signs to explain his hobby.

• Birdability Captain and co-organizer of #BlackBirdersWeek, Corina Newsome, wrote an article in Summer 2020: It’s Time to Build a Truly Inclusive Outdoors.

• A 107-page dissertation, The Whitewashing of Wilderness: How history and symbolic annihilations influence Black American’s participation at National Parks, by Tshari White of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 2018.

• Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors. A book written by Carolyn Finney, 2014.

• A National Audubon magazine article by Gregory Nobles from July 2020: The myth of John James Audubon and an in-depth dive by Dr J Drew Lanham in spring 2021: What do we do about John James Audubon?

Resources to help increase racial diversity in birding

• Check out our webpage about Welcoming and Inclusive Birders. Many ideas in the list of recommendations came from #BlackBirdersWeek, and apply to birders with disabilities and other health concerns, BIPOC birders and LGBTQIA+ birders, as well as beginner birders.

• Read Dr J. Drew Lanham’s Nine Rules for the Woke Bird Watcher, published in Orion Magazine, December 2020.

• Watch this presentation hosted by Texas Children in Nature, presented by Sebastian Casarez of The Texas Blue Jay Project, titled Birding in the Barrio: How to Spark a Love of Birding in Young Minorities.

• Read (and share!) this book: Birding for everyone: Encouraging People of Color to become birdwatchers, by John C. Robinson. Published in 2008 by Wings-on-Disk.

• National Audubon has a whole suite of information and activities for kids online in Spanish! Check out Audubon Para Ninos for more.

• Draw from the American Birding Association’s list of commitments to act to increase equity, diversity and inclusion.

• Bird Names for Birds is a movement to rename North American birds to describe the bird, not celebrate a (white) person.

• White (or white-passing) birders: engage in some anti-racism education.

  • Start with this article: What white birders can learn from Amy Cooper about their own racism, then dig deeper.

  • Books include How to be Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, and Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad. These titles and more can be purchased online from Elizabeth’s of Akron, a BIPOC-owned bookstore.

  • Follow anti-racist educators on social media like Rachel Cargle on Instagram

  • Online courses like the Anti-Racism Flight Club, run by Doyin Richards.

Resources for birders who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color

• Connect with BlackAFinSTEM (the organizers of #BlackBirdersWeek) and other Black birders on Instagram and Twitter.

• The Feminist Bird Club has chapters in eight US cites (plus one each in Canada and the Netherlands), and holds bird outings which intentionally create safe places for women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ birders.

• Flock Together are a birding group for People of Color that started in London and has expanded to Toronto. Get in touch with them via Instagram.

• Outdoor Afro: “Where Black people and nature meet!” Hold hikes and outdoor events all over the US.

• Latino Outdoors: “Connecting cultura y community with the outdoors.” Volunteer leaders across the US hold hikes, camping trips, bird outings and more.

• Trying to get your immigrant parents outdoors? Melanin Base Camp’s blog Six Ways to Get Outside with BIPOC Immigrant Parents has some great ideas.

• Super clear, helpful resource for BIPOC interacting with the outdoor industry, written by Amath Diouf for Melanin Base Camp: BIPOC Freelancer Outdoor Industry Guide. Includes clear advice and examples on honorariums you should expect, how to set healthy boundaries, and why it isn’t OK to be asked to work for free.