Among the many reporting experiences accumulated in my 13-year career as a journalist, a walk in Philadelphia’s John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in 2022 stands out as one of the most memorable. I was invited there by various leaders from the Black birding community, who were in town to celebrate the 3rd Annual Black Birders Week.
The get together at Heinz was to help inform what I thought would be a heavy story. Black Birders Week is a national initiative that grew out of the generation-defining summer of 2020, when a global pandemic, high-stakes presidential election, intensifying climate crisis and the murder of George Floyd set the world aflame — figuratively and literally. In 2022, much of that was fading from the public consciousness, but in a way the moment seemed just as important. Whether or not historic moments actually change anything is determined in the aftermath: do we listen? Do we learn? Do we do better?
On that sunny afternoon in 2022, all those heady questions got left on the side of Heinz’s loop trail. I followed along as Anwar Abdul-Qawi, Jason Hall, Tykee James and Corina Newsome — all Black birders who work in some way in the sciences — marveled at the sight of ruby-throated hummingbirds, Baltimore orioles, yellow warblers and marsh-frequenting species of all colors and sizes. I watched as they chanced upon and made an instant connection with regular Heinz birders Bernice Coles and Betty Cottle, both Black women.
I learned that all that heavy stuff is only one part of the story. Another part is the sheer beauty of Black joy: Black people brought together by shared hardships, but setting them aside, even for just an hour, to simply enjoy life and each other, itself a form of resistance.
And I learned a third, perhaps most essential thing: Birding is indeed just flat out fun.
So it was with great excitement that I attended this year’s 5th Annual Black Birder’s Week gala, hosted at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University on Saturday, June 1. And once again, it offered a refreshing immersion into the uplifting vibes of the Black birding community. The gala included a “sneaker ball,” in which scores of attendees showed off their freshest kicks. Elsewhere, libations flowed, a buffet beckoned and whole-hearted embraces abounded.
But what about progress? Seated at a table over dinner, I struck up conversation with half a dozen guests, all of whom were people of color who said they had just started to get into birding. Anecdotally, at least, it was a pretty good start.
If we want to preserve and save the diversity of birds, we have to have a diversity of people who care about the birds.”
— Christian Cooper, Extraordinary Birder
Later, I caught up with Abdul-Qawi, a Philly native, manager of animal programs at the Academy and wildlife photographer with dreams of making it into the pages of National Geographic. I floated him a question: Are “we” — society — making progress on getting more Black people into historically white-dominated natural spaces and institutions?
He took note of the smiles and dapping taking place all around, as the new friends of 2020 had become old friends of 2024.
“Honestly, I’m very happy being in this space. It feels good to finally be in a room with people that not only look like me but share the same passion,” Abdul-Qawi said. “Everybody has their own thing… it feels good to see people of color happy and just living their life.”
Newsome, a Germantown-native who went south for college and got her Master’s studying seaside sparrows in Georgia, has since changed tracks. She’s now a conservation scientist at the National Wildlife Federation where she advocates for equitable advancements in scientific organizations and through Congressional legislation.
Newsome agreed with Abdul-Qawi that their grassroots communities of Black birders and nature-lovers continue to get stronger year after year. But, she added, the external objectives they advocate for are not yet accomplished.
“A lot of the institutions that many of us may or may not work at, or that we’re trying to move in a certain direction, I can’t say the same for,” Newsome said. “A lot of what we’re seeing right now — and this is not just unique to natural sciences — are a lot of the commitments that were made in 2020 have not been followed through on. Or are even being walked back in some cases.”
Jason Hall, a Montgomery County-based vaccine scientist who started the local In Color Birding Club in 2020, offered a similar perspective. In Philly, the scene is blistering, Hall said. His club has taken on many new members and is making trips to destinations like Hawk Mountain and New York City’s Central Park. But outside of that “bubble,” Hall believes progress is slower across the American landscape.
“That’s okay, though,” Hall said. “Because in order to actually make these changes, and maybe not end up partnering with institutions that don’t actually share your vision, you have to be very diligent with who you partner with. So I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
Newsome and Hall also agreed that one of the most valuable ways to support the movement is by giving financially to local organizations like In Color Birding, which allows them to increase capacity and get more Black people into outdoor spaces. Hall added that other Delaware Valley groups like Philly Queer Birders, Feminist Bird Club Philly, the PA Center for Adaptive Sports and the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club share similar missions and also benefit from support.
Perhaps the evening’s most powerful testimonial came from Christian Cooper, a gay, Black man from New York City who became the unwitting subject of national headlines in 2020 when a white woman called the police on him while he was birding in Central Park and asked her to leash her dog. The incident took place just hours before Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis.
If anyone knows the highs and lows of the four years since that summer, it’s Cooper. The incident thrust him into a kind of celebrity. Among many subsequent high-profile forays into the media, Cooper hosted a season of his own TV show on NatGeo, Extraordinary Birder With Christian Cooper (now available on Hulu). But as he announced during a Q&A with Newsome at the Gala, the show was not renewed for a second season after owner Disney “gave new marching orders” to NatGeo, Cooper said, likening it to a “slap in the face.”
After a few days of depression following the cancellation, Cooper perked back up, he said. Subsequent Emmy nominations for the show helped. But asked by Newsome where he finds the most hope, Cooper gestured toward the audience.
Bird species are threatened across the planet, he said. The Black birding “movement” still has a ways to go. But the people celebrating together that night were the solution to both, he said.
“I say it over and over and over again. If we want to preserve and save the diversity of birds, we have to have a diversity of people who care about the birds,” Cooper said. “We can turn it around, but it’s going to take everybody.”
