ABA Blog

This is such a big topic. There's a lot I could say about it but I'll try not to write a book here. I think that part of the problem is the standards used to measure the top ranks of birding. I think women, regardless of skill level, tend to be less competitive. Men tend to be more into the whole "mine is bigger than yours" thing, leading to them being more inclined to really competitive listing. I don't care about competing with anyone. I'm not good at submitting listing numbers when I bother to add them up at all. The competitive spin that some local birders (all men I might add) have put on eBird has really turned me off of using eBird.

If we measure the "top ranks" by who is involved in running local bird clubs, who is editing and writing for local and state publications, who is leading field trips locally, and who is teaching and mentoring new birders, I think we'd find a much higher percentage of women. The numbers might still be uneven but I think they'd be more representative. These are things that I find more important than who has enough money to run around getting the biggest list.

I started birding as a teen in the mid-seventies. All of the people I can remember birding with until I finished high school were men. I can't remember any of them ever being anything but welcoming to me. I do remember asking about local bird clubs and getting told that the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club was an old boys club that didn't allow women. That's the only discouragement I ever got and it was clear at the time that the men who told me about that didn't approve. What I thought at the time was that birding was simply something that interested more men than women. Several of my interests are like that. It never bothered me.

From a more experienced viewpoint, I think that part of the reason that girls weren't more interested in birding is that little boys at the time got more encouragement to go out in the woods and play while little girls tended to be discouraged from getting dirty and running around in the woods. (Now kids don't seem to be allowed to run off to play in the woods at all.) Plus there was the whole notion that watching birds wasn't a respectable hobby at all. I remember the neighborhood kids making fun of my father for watching birds. I mostly tried to hide what I was doing from them.

When I went away to college I found a couple of bird clubs to join and met plenty of women, some of whom taught me a lot. I always felt welcomed by pretty much everyone but part of that may be that I already had a lot of experience and knowledge before I got involved with the clubs.

I think another part of the problem is that women tend to be more sensitive to a lack of support from people with more experience. When experienced birders belittle them or fail to be helpful, I suspect that women tend to feel more influenced to give up the hobby than men. Too often people who are just starting out or who've been interested for years but haven't advanced very far in their knowledge get treated poorly by people who regard themselves as more knowledgeable. There may or may not be sexism involved in this. The people doing it may not even intend to do it. Simply ignoring beginners or talking over their heads makes them feel discouraged. A number of years ago someone said something to me that really made me take notice. I was helping to lead a tour in the Dry Tortugas. At the end of the trip, two of the women came up to me, gave me a tip, and thanked me for not having made them feel stupid. I was flabbergasted. To this day I wonder what had happened to them on tours they'd been on previously that they'd be so grateful that I hadn't made them feel stupid.

Brooke McDonald (aka RLkittiwake),

Just a couple of points I have to make:

If you are going to go after Matt like that or just post comments in your own blog comments section why can't you use your own name instead of your anonymous Rlkittiwake? Most authors of blogs on here use their own name when commenting in the comments section of their own blog posts and I think you should do the same, right? Just own your comments like you owned your words in your excellent blog post above.

I can't even begin to get into your experience in the Humboldt birding scene while you were here and I'm sorry if you really had such a rough time if those quotes above were truly said to you. That would be pretty rude and condescending and paints some of the top male birders here in Humboldt as some serious condescending assholes. I do agree with your statement about the person you worked for for the most part, as I'm pretty sure I know who you are talking about, but I have a hard time believing every quote you wrote above. I wonder if any of the female birders that are currently students at HSU have also experienced such disparaging and disrespectful comments directed towards them? I don't get the sense that they have.

I really appreciated your article and think it was very timely and think it's great it is generating so much discussion on this topic and I fully agree with most everything you wrote in it. Thanks.

As I read through these comments, I’ve been nodding my head so much the kinks from this spring’s warbler neck have disappeared.

Some thoughts: There are more than eight women among the top 100 ABA area listers. True, names like “Edge” and “Tommie” are not obviously female to those who don’t know us. One can forgive the assumption that we are male—but that sorta underscores the whole point of the issue, doesn’t it?

The calling up of names like Phoebe, Claudia and XXX is another indicator of the sinister aspect of the pervasiveness of the topic. Pointing out the exceptions (exceptional?) is just another way of “proving the rule.”

I don’t know most of you as well as you seem to know one another, but I have been in your presence on as many occasions as I could afford. You probably didn’t notice me, or perhaps bid a courteous “hello” as you passed by, escorting your group or seeking that next bird.

I’m the short of stature woman who “took up birding” at almost 50. I took a couple of adult ed classes from one of Missouri’s most accomplished birders, joined the local Audubon chapter and went on as many field trips as possible. I bought field guides and books about birding and birders and early American ornithologists. I read them all and wore out every field guide I didn’t lose off the top of the car.

I went to the woods as often as possible, usually alone. I honed my skills, I learned about habitats and behavior and expected occurrence dates. I bought increasingly better optics. Yes, I now own Swarovski binoculars and scope. Their purchase meant the car must do for another three years and I must forgo that pricey ABA conference, and I can’t run to Florida for a couple of lifers.

I began travelling with other women, mostly—although an occasional male would be along. I learned how to bird the RGV, southeast AZ ,and southern CA from other birders, then struck out on my own.

I am not a “highly skilled” birder. I started late, after mental acuity peaked, I have severe hearing loss, my stamina is slipping away with the years. So, how did I get so many birds on that life list? Yup, many were on the coat tails of others. Some were on the few tours I’ve been able to take—Attu once before 500, a Hi Lonesome Alaska trip after 700. On group trips we’ve hired a local guide for a day or two—Rich, Rick, Melody and Steve

But mostly, that list is due to preparation and perseverance. It took me three morning treks up Pine Canyon in Big Bend to see the Fan-tailed Warbler.

Yet, with all that preparation and perseverance, on more than one occasion I’ve been called “a lucky birder”. That is not a compliment; it is a denial that one is “a good birder.” The “lucky birder” comments have almost always been by other women.

Yes, the haughty, dismissive attitudes of some male birders are real, hurtful and counter-productive in a birder community. But, “fellow” women, please reflect, have you been guilty of putting down another woman birder in a public setting? I have, and I deeply regret it.

Yes, there is a field glass ceiling, but it is most difficult to break through when it is a mirror.

Whilst I think I get your drift Ted, I doesn't feel like it is other birders' attitudes that are keeping minorities from getting more involved in the field - perhaps a key difference to the point you are trying to make?

I can however imagine the uproar if a good number of minority birders complained that they spent half their time being studiously ignored or that other birders they met solely engaged their white birding companions, that they were often talked over, or generally had their birding skills dismissed or were told constantly that they liked birding in a completely different way to white birders.

Ted, we need to get more women of color involved. We need to get more PEOPLE of color involved. One of the differences here is that there are many women who are involved. Look at the statistics that Brooke quotes.

What I am looking forward to are the comments from women of color and how they feel included or excluded in the upper ranks of birding.

Piping in a little late, but I just wanted to say that I don't find anything offensive or sexist in Matt's comments here. There is nothing repugnant in calling a spade a spade, especially if it is said within a context of "I don't know why x is, but I have observed x." I personally wouldn't avoid Matt if I met him in the field, because if anything he has just validated that there is a noticeable discrepancy. I don't read a tone of disrespect into what he has said here, either towards competitive female birders or to those who decide not to be as obsessive about it.

Far more offensive to me are the comments on this post and on the FB forums, many of them made by women, that imply or outrightly state that if women simply stand up for themselves and demand respect, then said respect should (eventually?) be awarded. Now that is patent BS on an unbelievably insidious level.

I don't think they're akin to antlers at all. Like Michael said, make and model of binoculars mean absolutely nothing, aside from the fact that the birder has the money to spend on an expensive pair of binoculars. Some of the least-skilled birders I've ever met were sporting brand-new Swarovski ELs, while some of the absolute most-skilled birders I know prefer Nikon Monarchs or Bausch & Lombs.

Brooke, I'm sorry you've had lots of negative run-ins with male birders. That sucks. But I think you missed the point of my comments. My thoughts as to why there are so few "most-skilled" female birders weren't that the women I birded with were incapable of becoming "most-skilled", but they appeared (to me) to be disinterested in putting in the effort. Your comment that perhaps I just woke up one day and had the skill set I have today is actually really insulting. I worked for my skills. I birded my ass off, every day. I have accrued tens of thousands of hours of field time in the last 15 years. I've dedicated my life to becoming as skilled of a birder as I can. And it's not just me; I surrounded myself with peers that were just as dedicated to the craft as I was. We birded every weekend. We missed class to see birds. When rare birds were found, we went and saw them, regardless of if we'd seen them before, just to gain experience with them, to hone our skills as close to razor-sharp as we could. This wasn't listing, this was obsession. I surrounded myself with like-minded obsessive-compulsive birders because that's what pushed my skill set to new frontiers. A chess player doesn't become a master by playing against novices, they become a chess master by playing against chess masters. Birding is the same way. And, in the midst of this, it became my observation that again and again, the young women who were into birds, with a couple of shining exceptions, did not have the drive that I did. It wasn't because they couldn't, and it wasn't because they were novices, it was because they didn't want to dedicate themselves the way that I did.

For your second point, don't presume to know how I interact with my friends. You don't know what the context for my comments are. They're made to a very specific, narrow, audience comprised of my close circle of friends. As an outsider, it's not fair for you to judge me for my interactions with my friends.

Finally, I am not a leader in the birding community. I haven't assumed any roles, no one has lauded me with laurels or whatever qualifies someone as a leader in the birding community. I bird for my own personal reasons, and I feel under no obligation to assume any roles.

Best LOL of the thread, Mary; I love it (and I'm sure Matt did too).

Loved the film but this part of the conversation feels like a contrived marketing move.

I'm so 20th Century, Ted. I keep wanting to draw a line between my computer, over which I have some control, and the internet, over which I have none. Must be a control freak. ;-)

Mary, I am glad that nothing has inhibited your passion for birding and that you have a supportive circle around you, but not all of us can simply ignore the negativity by walking away or choosing different birding buddies. Women professionally involved in birding, such as many of the women in Brooke’s article, are not able to so easily remove themselves from the negativity. I know many women in academia who have been and continue to be frustrated by the same issues.

Great idea, Dennis. Glad I thought of it... :-)

No, seriously, we're working on putting together a sorta Top 10 list of posts that have generated particularly intense commentary. We'll publish that in Birding.

Offhand, I don't see the need to convert the content to PDF format. Folks can just go straight to the post, then see all the comments below. If you want a printout (but why?), you can press PRINT. And if you actually want a PDF, you can press "CONVERT TO PDF."

Which would be a bit like downloading the contents of your smartphone to the medium of 8-track casette... :-)

Thanks again, Dennis. You'll see your suggestion in the pages of Birding, soon enough.

This has been an absolutely great discussion, and one person or another has said just about anything I might have in response. The under-representation of women in positions of respect and authority in birding (as elsewhere) has been a concern of mine since the 70s, and this has been the best discussion of it I have seen. I suppose most ABA members read the blog, so there's no need to print it all in Birding, but it might be good to have it printed up as a pdf that could be disseminated widely.

Thanks Ryan, I've fixed them.

I just love doing big years. Oddly enough, the final result, is not the only, or even the main, goal when I do a big year. I just love the doing of big years, the "excuse" to be birding much of the time, the surprises, the things I discover about birds and birding and the birds' world. And with this current county big year, I love how much it has helped me learn about what the birds do in this part of the country and when they do it. It's like the county is my chosen birding "patch".

The problem, Bill, is two self-imposed restrictions: I have to be able to walk to the place from my house, and I can't use bins or a scope.

Good luck to you and the Boulder County Julians. I hope the name sticks. I shall do my darnedest to see to it that it does!

"This post got me wondering what it would be like to do overlapping big years - start a big year on January 1, start another on February 1, start another on March 1, etc. and keep them all going."

Lynn, you are the Garry Kasparov of Big Year birders:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov#32_simultaneous_computers.2C_1985

:-)

I love it!! This post got me wondering what it would be like to do overlapping big years - start a big year on January 1, start another on February 1, start another on March 1, etc. and keep them all going. Or start one every other month to keep keeping track more manageable. Every bird found in a month would count on all the currently running big years. Something to think about. I have always thought starting on January 1st was awfully arbitrary. And I also like counting anything you want to count - that sounds very freeing.

Interesting that a guy can find and ID dickie birds in a tree canopy but claims to have never noticed anyone's binos, you know, those large objects mostly worn on a person's chest standing right next to you. They are sort of the human equivalent of antlers except both genders have them. The male mind's ability to compartmentalize is amazing so I guess this could be true, particularly if the the guy has just an average pair of binos himself. (Note, I'm not interested in a flame war, so this will likely be my last comment.)

The "Gray-breasted Flycatcher" from Attu should have been "Gray-streaked Flycatcher", right? And I think the Eyebrowed Thrush photographed by Doug was on St. Paul Island, not Attu.

Ted, I presume that your "strange and perverted twist" on Saturday June 15th does not include participating in the 32nd annual Ward Block of the Indian Peaks Bird Count that I invited you on earlier in the week? Alas, you could have seen 4 or 5 of the Boulder County Julians at work.

I'm saving the best for last. May, as you say--plus the very birdy first week of June, at least here in Colorado.

Some birds on my Colorado list in this first week of my Big Year: Hepatic Tanager, Gray Vireo, and Scott's Oriole. But still no Ring-billed Gull, Belted Kingfisher, or White-breasted Nuthatch.

"...I am always interested in HOW people bird as much as why and where they bird."

I totally agree with you, Mel. And on that note, be sure to see "A Birding Interview," appearing in the (very imminent) May/June 2013 Birding. It's as if you and the interviewee were in a Vulcan mind meld. You'll see.

Also: "I learn from my fellow birders (women and men alike) the lessons they pass along."

The best lessons are the ones that have nothing to do with birding per se. Mel, you've importantly influenced the way I give public talks. (Cf. your exposition, equal parts brilliant and subtle, in the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain. Remember? Well, I sure do!)

Tomorrow (Sat., June 15th, 2013) my project will take a strange and perverted twist. I promise to post about it. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I must go now, to read about your 647 species and 1,000 awesome experiences.

Touche, Robert, but I haveta confess: The idea isn't original with me. I got it from, ahem, Albert Einstein, whose little "Relativität" is one of the finest specimens of truly interesting and original writing I've ever laid eyes on. (I'd give anything for a fresh, modern translation into American English. Where are Rick Wright and Ned Brinkley when you need them?)

Einstein became fascinated by the, er, "relativity" of the human condition. Each of us has our own here and now; our own past, present, and future; our own place in the universe, distinct from every other observer's place. That sounds like philosophy, no doubt, but it's cold, hard physics.

The following paradox is gratifying to me: The so-called rule-breakers are simply obeying the laws of physics, but the people who follow the supposed rules are living a lie... :-)

I think it's disheartening that the first comment about what should be a marvelous adventure is a negative one. The ABA has significantly expanded and broadened its appeal in recent years. That is a really good thing. People who would never have considered joining the old, stodgy ABA are now members. I'm one of those. The only way that an organization can expand is by evolving and broadening its appeal. I say bravo! A reminder: If you do what you always do, you get what you always get.

Sam, I'm not so sure too many women or even the men here are in "disbelief" about sexism in birding. It is as real here as it is everywhere else in society. I, personally, chose to not let it be a problem for me. I never have needed any man's permission to go birding or to see a bird. If I'm out there, I will see the birds, and there are plenty of great resources available to help me with any tricky identifications.

The one exception to the permission rule is my husband, as in, "Honey, will you babysit while I go out?" That's not really permission as much as logistics. Sometimes he can, sometimes not.

As I mentioned earlier, the only real problems I face with birding are with regards to my own personal safety, and balancing family time with birding obsession. I'm lucky that my husband understands that I am totally and completely bird obsessed, and yet he loves me anyway ...

He even tries to do some birding - started his first list this year. But he happily defers all ID questions to me.

His take on all of this? He says, "This is where academia was 30 years ago." As a university professor, he was also appalled at a certain comment by a professor on this blog about females' skill, or rather lack of it. It was blatant sexism. I remember college professors like that. Scary that they are still out there.

His other interesting reaction to all of this was that he got a very big laugh out of the idea of birder dudes having groupies. "Really?! These guys think they have groupies!!" I thought that was funny, too.

I used to be jealous of those husband and wife birder duos, but not after reading this blog and all of the subsequent comments. I love birding and I do have many male birder friends who are wonderful people, but I am so happy that my husband can be my escape hatch back to sanity when needed!

Well, off to find some MIKIs!!!

Good birding!

PS - Thank you Brooke and ABA for hosting this blog. It has been very helpful and cathartic for me and probably many other women.

Thank you so very much Liz! Thanks also to Brooke and all the women who responded to this blog post. By women supporting other women change will occur.

I do believe you are the First Lady of Birding for our generation!

What an awesome post and subsequent conversation! My two cents for what they're worth is that a "good birder" is in some folks minds synonymous with "ornithologist". I don't *want* to "discuss the subtleties of Catharus Thrush ID, or know exactly how to separate Common and Spotted Sandpipers in flight" as my friend Matt put it. I am content to include birding in my daily hikes, and in my discussions with visitors as a Park Ranger, and to occasionally contribute my lists to eBird when I'm feeling industrious. I love the challenge that bird ID poses me, but I'll never need or want to know how to tell birds apart based on the length of their rectrices. Maybe that will never qualify me as a skilled birder in some people's minds, but I'm fine with that. I know I'm a birder. I always will be no matter how often a bog orchid distracts me from a bird I was trying to ID. Perhaps I'm better off identifying myself as a naturalist now, even if birds were the catalyst that got me looking in the first place. I respect anyone who takes the time to appreciate nature, in whatever form best suits them. What I love most about this discussion is how many birders, both male and female, that I know in this thread! For the sheer number of birders in the US, we are a small community after all!

I spent one winter working on St. John in the Virgin Islands. When I returned to Oregon in May, I started up my year list. It was a great time of year to start a year list. I've pondered doing it again. Go Ted!

Just watched Big Year for the first time last night. By the middle of the movie, I said.... I have to do this. Very inspired by your story. I have no birding experience. I'm starting my research now, yours is the second post I've come across. Thank you!

I suppose for me it all boils down to the question of "community" and what we expect of it. That's a very ABA question. ABA offers a big, big tent, and it has activities that range from aesthetic/artistic appreciation, conservation, outreach, kids' events, 'sport' birding and listing, ethics of birding, and just about anything else that falls under its broad mission statement. No one activity or emphasis excludes another, but there is the Code of Ethics, which is a mixture of common sense and common courtesy. So in that sense it very much mirrors the birding community I grew up in - diverse, with room for just about everyone. It is very sad to hear that women birders are devalued in so many parts of the country. I must say that when I dedicated my field guide, there was no hesitation - it was dedicated to Susan Hubbard, Gisela Grimm, Becky White, YuLee Larner, and Floy Burford. I had many male mentors, for sure, but these women were, and are, venerated by generations of local birders, from the coast to the mountains, not just because of their competence but because of their great affection for birds and birding and their willingness to share their knowledge, their homes, their lunch. In the end, my feeling is that each of us, within the birding community, needs to locate people of good will and common interests and go birding with those people. If some cranky person yells at you or condescends, that person probably isn't the best person to go birding with. I think anyone who birds in a popular birding area for a while will end up having an unpleasant encounter with a fellow birder eventually; that is a shame. But we are diverse, and some of us are unpleasant too often. I can remember times when I was not Miss Mary Sunshine, for sure. Most of those moments were regrettable. Nevertheless, as with the Code of Ethics, I think the coin of the realm - if a birder would like to have companionship in the field - should be a relatively pleasant demeanor. Cruelty and birding are not a very good mix. Most of us are looking for a refuge from negativity, a connection with what's real, what's fascinating, and what's beautiful in the world. So whether a caustic comment is sexist, racist, homophobic or just plain mean, I think the best course of action is to look the poor soul in the eye, smile, and depart. That might help the offender realize that the consequence of such attacks is self-exile.

You raise an interesting point, Mike, about the cost (and make) of optics slung around one's neck. Many times, someone with whom I was birding would comment on someone else's binoculars. Sometimes it was along the lines of "Well, they had Swarovskis, so I bet they know what they're talking about." My response was always "Oh, I didn't notice, and what does that matter?" It's just not something I've ever noticed, or thought about needing to pay attention to. I think optics are like big lists: they mostly show you have money to burn, and tell you very little about the person to whom they're attached.

I guess we have different definitions of "dismiss". You'd have to ask Jen that. I've tried. ;-)

I'm surprised by the number of comments thus far from both men and women who appear to be in disbelief that sexism in birding is a real problem. It is fantastic to hear of advancements in some regions of the US, however, in my neck of the woods the birding situation for women is comparable to what Sheridan Coffey has described.

I've been birding since I was a kid and I grew up in a supportive community. A few decades later, tons more birding and after a lot of moving around I have been witness to a great diversity of reactions to a young woman birder.
Where I currently live, the birding community is very male-dominated. My first (and last) outings with the local bird club involved a male group leader (local bird 'expert') who disregarded everything I tried to contribute and made disturbing sexual innuendos toward the young women present. The experience hasn't stopped me from birding, but it left me wondering: what influence has the group leader had over the years on new young birders, male and female?

My partner is also a birder and, as others have described, I’m assumed to be his supportive shadow birding companion despite having birded for +30 years. He has been teased mercilessly by male birders if I appear to be more knowledgeable about something than him, if my lists are larger than his, if I identify something before him or, worse, we disagree and he is wrong.

Mentoring young women to be skilled birders is only part of the solution. We also need to teach male birders that it is ok for women to be experts, too.

After reading some of these comments, I see that sexism is as rampant as it was over 10 yrs ago when I mostly got out of birding.

Why is Margaret Morse Nice supposed to be asso. w/ a *kitchen* window of all windows in a house? MMN was a world-class ornithologist who wrote nearly 250 papers on birds, 3,000 *book* reviews and several books including an autobiography. I don't know, but I suspect that she wasn't that into cooking, cleaning, decorating, or entertaining. Given her obvious academic inclinations, I suspect she spent *way* more time in an office/study/library than in any kitchen.

The question 'why' sexism persists in birding an important one. I think it may primarily have to do with the fact that birding or listing (as opposed to ornithology) is grounded in reputation. Birders come back from a day in the field and report the list of spp. seen. Other birders, who have all seen 1000s of such lists, judge each incoming new list based on its length and the number of rarities. If the list is long with lots of rarities and the observer was a female, then a touch of doubt probably creeps in, but if the observer was a male, then reverence may be the overriding response. Without a photo or a spmn, is all we have to go on is the street (field?) cred of the birder as to the authenticity of their list.

Again, the fundamental question is 'why?' I'm not a psychologist, but I find that children's views on gender are *deeply* ingrained and a shockingly young age. It's like, from the time they are five yrs old until they die, people only seem to accept evidence that supports their preconceived ideas! Boy v. girl expectations are initiated from birth when announcements are sent out color coded (blue/pink) based on gender.

And of course, birding is cursed with classism as well. If a guy birder sporting elite optics meets a gal birder in the field and she has a modest pair of binos around her neck, well I'll let all the female birders here who have been there explain what's likely to happen next if you can't figure it out. One of the main reasons I wasn't terribly impressed with long life lists was that the length of one's life list is strongly correlated with the depth of one's pocket.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents of thought on this topic.

Mike Quinn, Austin

PS: My favorite birder was, and always will be, Martha Conger Neblett Hagar. I doubt she would have ever incorrectly reported seeing an ivory-billed woodpecker.

Way to dismiss the rest of her post, Michael.

Meanwhile, how DO we talk Jen into illustrating a guide??

Well said. Leading bird walks in south TX, I was on the receiving end of a lot of long pauses, followed by "I just thought the leader would be more... experienced." Life experience, perhaps? Heck if I know, none of them were within 5 years in guessing my age. At that point list numbers were decent, travel resume was decent, work experience was pretty feeble but practical bird work had been underway for years. Maybe in my next life I'll look the part.

I'm not sure girls ARE less interested: I think it just less 'approved' and thus the interest remains passive and eventually gets overshadowed by soccer practice or whatever.

Very, very, very true. Men don't seem to have, on average, a hard time 'getting out' even when they are parents.

Thanks for the input MIchael.

Thanks for sharing your perspective, Lilian.

Now a tangent, if you'll permit me. No one to my knowledge--female or male--has ever authored a field guide to all of the [extant] birds of North America, which extends from Alaska all the way down to Panama. I'll be dancing in the street when and if all of the "North American" field guides are finally properly titled as field guides to "the US and Canada". I think erroneous field guide titles are 90% of the reason ABA Area birders are confused about what "North America" means.

Thanks for the clarification, Nina. Good birding.

Just so long as they're not in binders, Kenn. ;-)

"Women who can discuss the subtleties of Catharus Thrush ID, or know exactly how to separate Common and Spotted Sandpipers in flight, or know, at a glance, that the Empid is a Dusky and not a Hammond's, are few and far between. I don't know why this is."

Matt, it's because those of us who can are avoiding you ;)

Great article, Brooke. I am one of the few women with my name as an author on a field guide to birds. I got my start in birding as a young adult. I got interested in birds by myself, especially from a behavior point of view as I had a Master's degree in the social sciences. I was fascinated by why birds did what they did. I had no binos or field guide and started to learn about birds anyway I could. I looked around for role models. Roger Tory Peterson as a role model just didn't do it for me. I discovered the work of Margaret Morse Nice, a successful women making a valuable contribution to ornithology, and decided she was my role model. I then discovered hawk watching and my mentor was Paul Roberts who put Mt. Wachusett in MA on the map as a premier hawk-watching site. I went up on the mountain and discovered a Bald Eagle and got hooked. I wanted to go to graduate school and become an ornithologist. I met Don Stokes, we fell in love, and together decided to make a life and career teaching others about birds. I introduced Don to hawk watching. I started taking photographs of birds and was at first teased, then later accepted (as the only women) into the core group of older guy photographers on Sanibel Island at that time and particularly mentored by Clarence Postmus. Here I am (over 30 years and 35 books later) as one of the few women with my name on field guides to birds, and the only woman with my name as co-author on a national field guide to all the birds of North America (I am also a major contributor of the photographs in that guide). I have been fortunate to have a supportive and loving husband and partner and together we bring out the best in each other. I continue to teach and inspire others to connect to birds and to encourage younger people who are involved in the NH birding community. I mentor people to connect to birds through photography, including using the new superzoom point-and-shoot cameras.

Though we are still in a male dominated society I see women becoming more powerful and moving into positions of leadership. We do need role models and mentors for young women in birding. It would be nice to see a woman as president of ABA and a women as author of a national illustrated field guide (are you listening Jen Brumfield?). In the long run it is not about how people choose to connect to birds, it is about acknowledging that none of those ways is inherently more valuable than the others. The real value is that people connect to birds at all, because then and only then will people have a vested interest in conserving those birds now and in the future in these challenging times. 

Ted, you once told me, "Your list is your list". As a birder who came late to this great party, I am always interested in HOW people bird as much as why and where they bird. I learn every time I pick up my bins, go on a field trip, or look out my kitchen window. I learn from my fellow birders (women and men alike) the lessons they pass along. By the way, I have a separate list for all the birds that "don't count".

Hi Ted,
Your project sounds terrific! I am a high school teacher, and was granted this past academic year off - so I decided to do a Big Year from June 2012 to June 2013. I just finished yesterday (647 species and 1000 awesome experiences). It was a terrific big year, and unconventional in a few other ways. I wrote about it on my blog: http://reallybigyear.wordpress.com
I hope you will keep us updated on your experiment!

Hans

Subtitle to this post: "Rule-breaker among the Rule-makers"

Ted, you little non-conformist you. Dude, you crack me up.

This bugged me at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival for 2013 - I get that for 'celebrity squares' or whatever that was, you can only have 9 people, but of them, only 2.5 squares had women. Louise had to share a square with Michael (which is funny, because 2 brains are better than one but they didn't get many questions...) but it still smacked of the numbers Brooke quoted.

::high five::

Hi Matt,

One of the things that writing this blog highlighted for me was the poor treatment of people who are still learning.

As a new birder, a person is expected to know everything immediately, and if someone doesn't know, for example, exactly how to separate Common and Spotted Sandpipers in flight, elite birders like you look down on that person.

I've seen several comments in the last day in response to this blog that effectively said that it's impossible to tell in some cases if it's really sexism or if the person is just not a very good birder, as if people who do not have elite skills deserve whatever rude treatment they get.

Back in the day when I was at Humboldt, I was really enthusiastic and really naive. I thought that being enthusiastic about birds should be enough, but it wasn't.

Over the space of about a year I got the following comments from my friends and mentors:

"Wow, you're really into it!" (I got this one several times from the same man.)

"Have you seen 200 yet?" (I also got this one several times, even after I told the man that I was over 500.)

"At some point I'm going to get a girlfriend, and when I do then we can't bird together any more."

"Are you a FEMINIST?"

Complete evisceration of my birding skills that boiled down to "Your birding skills are terrible because you're just not trying hard enough."

"I don't think she likes men." (Said about me.)

My boss saying that he hires women in order to get more men working for him, essentially stating that I was hired to hang out and look cute and not for any actual skills I had, while it was the men who were the good biologists.

"No girls allowed!"

"Why don't you quit birding and focus on something you're good at?"

These comments, ranging in tone from patronizing to grossly offensive, came from six different men, all of whom were leaders in the birding community then and are still leaders today. Most of these men aren't really sexists, they were just being thoughtless.

At the time I believed that I had invited these comments upon myself due to my poor birding skills. I even profusely apologized to one of the men in question saying that I would try harder to be a better birder in the future. But knowing now that the best women in the country are also treated terribly, I wish that I could go back and tell myself that I didn't deserve it.

Yes, my birding skills weren't great, but I was LEARNING.

But back to your post, you seem to be confused about why there are so few young women in the "most-skilled" category.

Maybe you became an expert overnight so you don't understand what it's like to struggle to develop your skills, but most of us actually have to work at birding, and if young women are not given the space to learn, then they will drop out of birding.

When I saw you comment on someone's Facebook page saying, "I've seen [her] birdwatch. I've even seen her correctly identify a bird," then my heart broke for that young woman. That is exactly kind of lack of respect that says to young women, "Nobody takes you seriously and nobody will ever take you seriously."

You are a leader in the birding community, and you need to act like it.

It's true that most young women will never be elite birders, but unless you treat women with a little more respect, there aren't going to be any young women at any level at all.

Great response Jennie, thank you!

Jennie summed up a lot of things that I wanted to write, but couldn't articulate well enough to actually post here, particularly in regard to some of the things Michael said above. The issue of young women birders dropping out of birding in high school or college, exactly when most of the younger birders I know were kicking their own skill set way past high gear, is, I believe, a big reason why there are so few women in the "most-skilled" birder echelon (note I didn't say good birder; being a good birder and a skilled birder are two very different things). Women who can discuss the subtleties of Catharus Thrush ID, or know exactly how to separate Common and Spotted Sandpipers in flight, or know, at a glance, that the Empid is a Dusky and not a Hammond's, are few and far between. I don't know why this is.

I guess the whole purpose of my post was simply to thank Ned for saying that Backyard Birders have a place in the birding community, too. It was in no way intended to slam the group I was with nor the leaders of the group. All of the leaders were wonderful. I very much liked the other birders and was totally blown away by the fabulous birds! And yes, I would recommend this trip to everyone who can scrape up the money to do it.

Michael, thanks for your offer. But I truly think it doesn't need hashing out. What is needed is for me to just delete my post if I can. I didn't realize when I spoke out that it would generate such negative response about the wonderful leaders of the group I was with. They were and are superlative -- skilled, knowledgeable, and kind!

It's rather like the situation of a teacher with a class of gifted children having one Special Ed kid in the class. The teacher MUST teach to the group. And on a trip of this kind, that's what the other participants paid for. That I felt uncomfortable was MY problem, not that of the leaders! I've always been defensive and have struggled with low self-esteem. That I felt I had to earn my place was not because of them! If we need to blame anyone, let's blame my deceased mother. She's not here to defend herself!

Right on: "The first is that there are just more boys interested in birds/birding than girls. We need to figure out how to bring more girls into the fold." Children are heavily influenced by their peers, and when I was a youngster, birding was the last thing on my mind. So now, I do my best to encourage children of all ages to come birding with me. And by doing this, I think I have turned at least two girls on to birding.

I was introduced to birding by my father-in-law while visiting him in Idaho, but when I returned to Idaho I began pursuing my addiction alone. Then I tapped into the AZ-NM listserv and heard about what people were seeing at the Gilbert Water Ranch. While looking up information about that blessed location I happened upon a listing mentioning guided bird walks on Saturday mornings. There I met Kathe Anderson, our guide. She was amazing! She knew the birds very well. She was a great mentor in allowing the participants to figure out the bird identities rather than shouting out the names of the birds. She was very encouraging, patient and supportive of my developing skills.
When I moved to Idaho, lady birders were abundant and were leading trips. Women like Cheryl Huizinga and Heidi Ware were and still are birding idols to me. Idaho women birders appear to me to be the bird club leaders and heavy lifters. For the short while I lived in Utah they were women birders I'd see on the twitches. They were women birders I heard competitively discussing their Utah state bird lists. It seems that lady birders dominate the birding social networks and ladies like Dawn Fine, Sharon Stiteler, and Julie Zickefoose have unknowingly been my bird blogging mentors. I've been birding with some great women birders whose skills and experiences far surpass my own.
What I'm getting at is that my birding reality has been shaped so differently that I have remained blissfully ignorant of sexism in birding. Perhaps my ignorance has allowed me to convey or perpetuate sexism. I hope not.
This blog post was was for me a revelation. I had never compared the number of women versus men contributors on my blog. If you would have asked me an hour ago I would have said I had more women contributors than men, but I just counted...gulp...I have 10 women to 21 men contributors. I think the women's posts generally get more attention and because their influence is greater in my mind I thought there were more of them. I'm shocked and embarrassed that I host a 2:1 ratio. Am I unintentionally or subconsciously sexist? Oh geez, I sure hope I am not and I hope I am not perceived in that way.
So what am I going to do about this newly acquired understanding that sexism in birding is a reality? What am I going to do to prevent it within my circle of influence?
I will make a point of asking women birders for I.D. assistance in person and online.
I will be more aware of my own and other's comments that may be sexist and will respectfully redirect when appropriate.
I will continue to encourage and promote the women birders in my life in their pursuit of birds in whichever ways they choose to enjoy birding, especially when they seek leadership service roles within our niche community.

NC Birder -- please, please, please!!! Go on the Gambell/Nome trip. The biggest problem truly was ME -- not others. And I didn't want to go stand on the Sea Watch in the freezing wind. Nor did I want to keep bouncing around on the back of an ATV. My fault, not that of the leaders! I washed dishes because I WANTED to!

Wow! This is an awesome blog post and thread. Thanks for starting this ball rolling, Brooke! This is incredibly thought-provoking.

I am one of those women who has always had more male friends than female, so a male birding mentor was not an issue for me (thanks, Alan MacLeod!). In work and social settings, I was often one of the "boys". (For the record, I am straight.) Perhaps because of having a large group of male friends, I have often been oblivious to gender discrimination. Of course, I HAVE seen, and sometime experienced, examples, inside and outside of birding.

I really relate to the comments about women taking on more organizational roles than spending time in the field. I thought it was just me! Regrettably, I have been known to refer to myself as more of an administrative birder than a field birder. I didn't think of it as a gender issue, though, and have never had the sense that I was pushed into it as a result of my genes--rather, a result of my skills in administration.

I came to the birding game late (40+), but I have been making up for lost time. I am not offended when people refer to me as the local "bird lady" when they phone me or meet me on the street. I've been moving towards "bird evangelist", though.

I might not have the longest list, nor may I be able to "call" a bird as quickly as other people, but I'm getting better all the time. What I have been able to do is advocate for birds, make birding exciting for others, and learn, teach, learn. There's something special about a non-birding friend telling me they saw a Varied Thrush (or Steller's Jay, or Pileated Woodpecker) in their yard, or asking me what bird makes a particular kind of sound they heard.

There are some very keen younger birders in our community, and while I've been delighted to encourage them all (and will continue to do so), your article has moved me to consider offering some personal mentorship to the girls. It will be a wonderful excuse to get away from the computer and actually spend more time in the field myself!

Hi, Magill, -- About beginning to bird whilst young: Spot on. But many of us come to birding later in life. (I dabbled at it until my husband died in 2008, and became much more interested when I moved to Green Valley, AZ a year later).

I don't think it's so much a stigma against girls birding -- at least it wasn't for me. In my case, I just wasn't exposed/interested in birds until, gradually, over the years, they became more and more important. And now, at 70, they are very important indeed.

But, I'll never be more than an intermediate birder because I have had so many other things on my plate: college, raising kids, working full-time, church work, gardening, crafts, and so forth. I think birding is like many other things: You become great at it when you give it all you have. (I think of the Masters in the Arts, for example.

Here in SE Arizona, we have some great women birders. Melody Kehl, yourself, Sheri Williamson, just to name a few. Karen Hochgraf used to live here and was a great birder, too. But, there are indeed levels of acceptance in the birding world, just as there are in every profession or sport. (see Clifford Cathers's recent post at the ListServ!) And gradually, over the years, it's been leveling out a bit. Think how this article would have been received had it been published 75 years ago! "We've come a long way, Baby!"

Hope to see you in the field one of these days!

Heidi, for what it's worth, three of the keynote speakers at The Biggest Week this year were women. That's still fewer than half, but it's better than nothing. Let me know if you're looking for women who give great keynote presentations, because I can suggest quite a few outstanding individuals.

I've enjoyed lurking and reading comments, though I haven't had anything to say. I do find it interesting that the world's top lister was a female. Listing isn't exactly a laid back sport, especially the way she did it! I know listing isn't always the same as birding, but she was really out there.

As a personal example, last year I was at a wildlife camp (about waterfowl conservation, though kinda geared toward hunting, which I have nothing against at all). One of the instructors who knew me from another similar camp, pointed me out as a birder, "Little Miss Audubon". It was a little embarrassing, but proved to be a great tool for teaching other youth about birding in the end. Anyways, I was talking to this one guy about birds and birding as he wanted to know what we'd seen that day. Right afterwards, another guy standing there went "You know too much." in this tone that clearly implied "You're a girl and how dare you know so much!" It really surprised me, as nobody's ever put it that way to me. They say I know a lot, or my best friend tells me I'm too smart in jesting, but never such a putdown. My response was "I don't know half enough!"

I've never been normal, or girly (ask my mom), nor will I ever be (that's why I love birding so much!). So, I don't care (too much anyways) if I look like a geek or a nerd or whatever you care to call it. In fact, sometimes it's nice to be different!

Nina, as a tour leader myself, I found your comment rather disturbing. I hope the trip leader attempted to make you feel welcome. But I also help that you informed her or him of your situation. If (s)he didn't know there was a problem, it's hard to try to remedy. Please feel free to contact me backchannel if you would like to hash this out ( mretter@aba.org ).

Michael, in response to your comment, I pretty much agree completely—we need to encourage more young women and girls to become (or remain, probably more accurately) involved with birding. I agree that the representation of women (of any age) in the birding community, as defined in this blog post, is low. But a fair bit of this in the adult world, as far as I am concerned, all comes down to how you define a birder. If you are talking about people who lead trips or have a life list or any of the measures that have previously been suggested in the post (and in comment threads about this post on Facebook), yes: there are not nearly as many women. But for me, the definition of ‘birder’ has always been a bit broader. I can think of a number of young women, now in the 20-35 age group, who I’d put in that category (Lauren Harter, Heidi Trudell, Leigh Lindstrom, Lena Senko, Hope Batcheller, and Alyssa Rosemartin all immediately spring to mind). I am surrounded daily by women doing important bird conservation work (in addition to the excellent women mentioned in the blog post or elsewhere in the various comments, I’ll put forth, in no particular order, Melissa Pitkin, Ellie Cohen, Ashley Dayer, Tammy VerCauteren, Kacie Miller, Lacrecia Johnson, Jennie MacFarland, Kirsten Lindquist, Beth Huning, Sandra Scoggin, Catherine Rideout, Mary Gustafson, Carol Beardmore, Carol Beidelman, Joni Ellis, Sue Bonfield, Barb Pardo, EJ Williams, Trish Edwards, Ali Duvall, Christina Sloop, Deanna Dixon, Bridgitte Collins, Sharon Kahara, Ruth Ostroff, and Betty Petersen, just to name a few—I could keep on going). There are plenty of women out there doing important bird conservation work—many in leadership positions—most of whom are also active in the birding community. So for me the question is really more about the metrics used to determine who is a “good” birder.

That said, there are definitely way more male young birders than female young birders, and I think that adults have a responsibility to do what we can to change this because, as you say, the young birders of today are the leaders of the birding (and conservation) community of tomorrow.

The way I see it there are really two issues at play. The first is that there are just more boys interested in birds/birding than girls. We need to figure out how to bring more girls into the fold. As various people stated in this article, having a mentor is usually a very key part to the way that most young people become involved in birding. I have to say that I think the argument that there are predominantly only male mentors is a bit of a copout. Would it be good to have more female mentors? Absolutely. Should we do more to promote and encourage this? Without a doubt. But we, as adults, regardless of our gender, can create programs and opportunities for youth that introduce and engage them to the world of birds and birding (and conservation, and natural history, etc., etc.) and that provide them with the opportunity to meet diverse adults doing all kinds of important and interesting things. It doesn’t have to be a one-on-one relationship. Invite young people out on your field trips. Provide transportation (this is probably the young birder’s biggest obstacle to getting out and going birding). Organize a monthly outing for young birders in your neighborhood. Build a relationship with the parents and let them know that their child is in good hands. And if you can’t do any of this? Then support the programs that can—the ABA, of course, has a long history of providing opportunities to young birders (disclaimer—I have been involved in some way with ABA young birder programs since about 1998), but there are opportunities all over the country. There are the big ticket things like the various summer camps and programs (make a donation to their scholarship fund or work with your local bird club to provide a scholarship to a local young birder), but by working with your local nature clubs, birding clubs, Audubon Societies, etc., you can organize some sort of regular opportunity to connect young people with birds and nature, to help build the community and the diversity that we would like to see in the future of the birding world.

The second issue is that, based on my experience, girls tend to drop out of birding as they reach high school or college. We need to think about why they drop out in the first place, and how we can keep them engaged. I’ve been watching the commentary here with interest, and while certainly girls tend to become more image conscious with age, I know that boys also deal with being in a minority and getting picked on for having a nerdy hobby (yes, there are more male young birders than female young birders, but compared to the entire world of young men? They are still a very, very small proportion of the total population.) As for those who blame the male young birders, I respectfully disagree with you completely. There are jerks anywhere you look, and male young birders have undoubtedly made inappropriate comments at one time or another. (Unfortunately, as has been evidenced by this post and the subsequent comments, this happens in the adult world, too.) But to generalize and say that male young birders are the reason that there aren’t more young women in the field is just not fair, any more so than saying that a handful of jerks in the male birding world make all male birders jerks. I have never seen any of the boys and young men with whom I’ve had the pleasure of birding over the years be anything but respectful, both to girls/young woman and to each other. Yes, there is teasing. Yes, occasionally people go over the line and feelings get hurt, but in my opinion, this is more about being a teenager than being male (or female—come on, girls can say mean things, too.) And frankly, most male young birders are thrilled at the prospect of getting to hang out with girls that are also interested in birds. (Sorry, Michael, for the heterosexual bent of this line of reasoning, but you get my point, I hope!)

So how to we make sure girls don’t drop out? I don’t completely know, but a good start would be to ensure that we encourage and provide opportunities for young birders, especially girls, and particularly as they enter high school and college, those years when we are most likely to lose them.

One last thought: the last two ABA Young Birder of the Year winners (age 14-18 category)? Both girls. The last two recipients of the Western Field Ornithologist’s scholarship to attend their annual conference? Both girls.

This comment is getting long enough now that it should probably be its own blog post. I’m not trying to say that sexism doesn’t exist in the world of birding; clearly it does, as it does most everywhere. I’m just trying to point out that it isn’t quite as clear cut as this blog post seems to make it. Don’t shortchange women and girls. We’re out there, and we’re doing good stuff, right alongside the boys.

I was considerably disturbed to read about Nina Hansen's experience on a Gambel/Nome trip. To me this sounds like a significant failure by the guides &/or company policy in failing to take care of a client, with overtones of (unintentional, I hope) sexism. The trip company may not have any control over the other attendees attitudes about "winning acceptance" for birding skills, but the trip leader(s) should have done their best to maximize her birding experience - and keep her from cleaning the dishes anymore than any other participant.
I'm a long-time serious birder (male), but not a serious lister. The possibility that I would go on a Gambel trip has now dropped way down.

The whole safety thing and how men don't have to think about it really hit me when I went birding with a local retired gentleman and mentioned that I didn't feel safe birding at a certain lake. A look of total bewilderment came over his face as he said, "Why?!" I told him that recently someone had flashed a woman and her daughter. I bird with my young daughter very often, so I really needed to take that threat seriously. My friend's response was, "Oh, I guess never think about things like that." It was nice honest response. Men really don't have to think about that, except in the most extreme places.

Yes, these really are the heroes. It's unfortunate that most of the stories of birding are told through the eyes of those with the biggest lists.

Wonderful post. You make so many great points. I would just like to add one thing - although patterns have certainly been changing over the years, and of course every family is different, I do wonder if one of the reasons there aren't more women birders is because they typically (again, not always) have more family/home/childcare responsibilities which could substantially decrease their time to be in the field.

Great point!

Way to not post any contact info...!
=)

Nina, I know some folks are uncomfortable with some organized trips because of situations similar to yours; it's really no fun needing to 'prove your worth' when you are ON A TOUR... ridiculous.

In turn, young male birders show up to the potlucks where it's all middle-aged women and they determine that "real" birders are in the field. And so the vicious cycle continues.

Wonderful, important post. I agree with the previous comments who mentioned that there should be other ways to "judge" (gack) a birder than just by his/her life list, and that if we think in terms of love of nature there are a lot more "serious" woman birders out there. The probably is that there are a lot of birders who DO make judge someone's birding ability based on how into listing they are. Personally, I love birding but am only a casual lister, partly because I hate the competitive asshole behavior that seems to come with it. Women are socialized from an early age to not be competitive, not be bossy, not rock the boat, or risk being called the b-word. It's something some of spend our whole adult lives unlearning.

Very, very well said, Mary! What freedom I had was tempered with an excessive amount of 'checking in' with my parents; and how do you do that in a place with no cell service? And birding in sketchy places at dawn and dusk; self preservation trumps whatever good bird it is or was, if going alone.

...but heaven help you if you try to get a female keynote speaker for a festival! Unless it's a competitive birder (Lynn Barber), the keynote speaker apparently must be male. I'd like to see stats on speakers overall because I have a limited sample size.

Then again, why bother trying to get a keynote speaker at all if you can get a life-sized cardboard cutout of Kenn Kauffman to prop in front of an audience! We need to get that cutout, it'll save on speaker costs. And it would probably still be taken more seriously than the alternatives.

LGBT birders...that's a whole other topic I'd love to examine critically at some point. My impression could well be biased and incorrect, but I think LGBT birders are *overrepresented* in the birding community, compared to the public at large. I know a fair few LGBT tour leaders, and, heck, two of the ABA's three magazine editors are gay men.

These are the top women birders in the country.

Can you imagine Kenn Kaufman, David Sibley, Steve Howell, Jon Dunn, or any of the other top male birders being treated like that?

That's how you know it's sexism and not "just" elitism.

Unless, of course, you're assuming that there just aren't any women birders on the same level as the top-ranked men.

I'm glad you didn't mean to denigrate her accomplishments and qualifications. The song sparrow volumes were published starting in 1937. She received the M.A. in 1915.

Hang in there and rock on -- the hardest part seems to be sticking with it when life catches up, but that's often when you need birding the most. It's a good balance to the rest of life!

Sure, the young guys bring along the girls who put up with their antics. The few girls with the fortitude to stick around put up with a lot of crap. It's easier to bird alone than deal with that. One-on-one, they're a great bunch. As a group, they can be remarkably inappropriate.

Great article. Michael Retter's comment is dead on, and hits at the crux of the issue. If you don't start birding as a kid, it's really tough to become a decent birder, let alone a great one. It's not impossible, but all the exceptional birders I know started off as kid birders. Until birding isn't seen as unspeakably, embarrassingly nerdy, you'll never have lots of girls participating. The photos I see of "young birders" in Birding don't convince me that birding has gotten any cooler for the teen set in recent years. This will sound incredibly judgmental and unkind, but ask any normal 15-year old girl and I can promise you she's not dying to hang out with any of those Camp Chiricahua boys. And even more importantly, she doesnt want to be seen as a huge geek herself. I hid my birding all through middle school and high school, and even now in my 30s I get a lot of grief from my female friends about it. It's not seen as cool at all.

If you want more birders, regardless of age, gender, race, whatever, the hobby needs to lose its stigma. I'm not going to go so far as to suggest the ABA emmulate Scientology in the 80s, but just one young, attractive, A-list celebrity birder would do wonders for the image.

By the way ladies, I have this dream of birding around the ABA with a posse of cool women, who are also great birders. I’m sick of being hit on, being told they can’t bird with me because their wives are threatened, and all the egos. You know who you are. Hit me up.

"The heroes of birding to me are the ones who get out and thoroughly enjoy the natural world and report what they see, learning from errors, enjoying habitats and other creatures, enjoying life generally and learning new things often."

Spot on!

I hear this piece of advice from others in my field of fishes. I'm also a bird-watcher but it's less dominating in my life than my work with fishes. I've been told that to be perceived as equal as a woman, you have to know your sh*t way better than the guys. There are few women in the ranks of authority when it comes to aquariums or ichthyology, too, though, there are certainly exceptions!

I'd like to make another point with regards to young women spending time with men as mentors. It can be very challenging and I have missed opportunities in my life because it would be viewed as inappropriate for me to travel somewhere alone with a man, when it would not even be an issue if I were a fellow. I guess I'd like to say that this is one reason why I am so very grateful for gay men! It just takes that component right out of it.

As a birder who married a birder and still fall into the 'young-ish' category, it baffles me when people assume I'm tagging along; I showed up for a (new) CBC alone and the folks were sad because he couldn't make it and I was there as a consolation or something. Funny. He HATES to do CBCs (rookie birders make him glad he's a recluse) and I've done 40+ in 10 years... 15+ in one season *was* a bit of a stretch, but I've been birding ~15 years and he's been at it ~8. We have very different backgrounds; his looks more glamorous on paper but we're roughly peers. Yet he is the one taken seriously.

We're a team. And I'm the feisty one. But he generally gets the credit. Do I get taken seriously without him? Sometimes. But occasionally because of him. What a weird tradeoff.

Beautiful birds, and it breaks my heart to see that they're in such sharp decline around here. Nice pictures - maybe someday I'll head out that way and see if I can't catch a sighting myself while I still can.

This was a great blog post and topic. I have enjoyed reading the comments and discussion that follows. Keep it up!

"This notion that she was "an avocational, 'kitchen window' bird-watcher" does the woman a great injustice." Only if one considers avocational and "kitchen window" pejorative and "advanced degree" more important, which I certainly do not. She received her degrees after she had become known for her work (including published research) on Song Sparrows and much of her work was done more or less in her back yard while raising her children.

The topic of birding and women has long been a conversation item so am glad to see it brought to the fore. Thanks, Brooke. And thanks to all the thoughtful comments posted thus far.

To Michael Retter and Mary DeLia, your comments about birding safety, people of opposite sex birding with one another or those of disparate ages, is dead on. It was what I was referring to in my comment about how hard it can be for women, particularly younger ones, to have older male mentors or even be regular birding companions, unless a group is involved. As for American sexism in birding, be glad we live in the USA, and not abroad, where we numbers far outstrip the percentage of female European birders. We have it easy compared to them.

LIke Ned Brinkley, one of my most cherished mentors was Claudia Wilds. What was so interesting about Claudia is that she didn't start birding until she was older. She told me how she was asked to lead field trips in the DC area where she lived and soon realized her field skills weren't good enough for "dicky birding." She decided to concentrate on larger birds that held still like gulls, terns, and shorebirds. She traveled to museums including ones abroad to do research. Along the way she gained a great deal of respect from the European birding community which is saying more than you can imagine. She was inspirational for many reasons, including the fact she overcame both age and gender barriers.

Touche!

Christina, I wish you the best of luck with your radio program.

Loosing a person like her is more than sad. I'd say that a person like Betty will surely rest in PEACE. She has done little but has contributed sooo much to make our world a better place for future generations. She will very much be missed.
The world will never forget about her, we will never forget her. She kept our hands when we were making our first steps toward conserving our natural environment here in Haiti.

We will keep her in our payers.

I think we also have to be careful with labeling women as the observers and the true appreciators of birds and nature. I know plenty of men, even some of the top listers in my state, who are deeply and profoundly in love with their natural world.

Claudia Wilds was "perceived by the men around her as an equal because she was twice as good"

We hear this in many areas of our society where women and minorities have to be "twice as good" to be "perceived ... as an equal".

Ned Brinkley, your comments brought tears to my eyes. I just got back from a mind-boggling, hugely expensive birding tour to Gambell with the Nome extension, where I felt like a kindergartner in a room full of college professors. (Many on the trip ARE professors!)

Immediately recognizing the disparity between myself and the others, I (yeah - defensively) explained that I am a backyard birder with a life list of about 590 birds (now), that I don't know Latin names nor sub-species, and that the reason for my trip was because birds lift my heart and bring joy to my life.

It rapidly became evident that I would have to earn acceptance for other skills than birding. So I washed a whole lot of dishes, talked with the wonderful Yup'ik people, and did my best to be upbeat and positive in a tough environment, even when the entire community of Gambell lost running water during the last 3 days on the island.

But I don't think that the respect/acceptance issues were caused by my gender, but rather by my lack of experience and lack of interest in all the technical aspects of birding.

So to read your post was refreshing and comforting. Thank you!

I've seen these problems on planning committees for local birding groups/festivals. Some of the older men on the committees act as if the women, especially younger women, in the group are there solely to provide refreshments, set up and take down at events, and listen/nod. They're dismissive of women's ideas for speakers, workshops, field trips, etc. And they consistently interrupt. I try to tell myself that it's a reflection of the era the men grew up in, but it can be infuriating.

That leads me to another issue I see, at least in my area. These same volunteer planning committees are made up of women and a few retired men. Of course women playing a role in local birding groups is a good thing. But I look around at meetings and wonder: Where are all the young and middle-aged men who I meet in the field, and see posting on eBird and local listservs? They're spending their free time connecting with each other and honing their skills. Meanwhile, we're planning potlucks and fundraisers. I'm very happy to play my part, but I would love to see more young men volunteer in the time-consuming administrative roles that help foster the birding community.

There are a lot of barriers to field birding for women. Sexism is the least of them. With eBird and other on-line tools we no longer need to be privy to those old boys' cliques. The real barriers are safety and cultural sensibilities. Being alone in secluded areas presents quite a big risk for young women. A teen boy is much more apt to go off alone in the woods than a teen girl who will be strongly discouraged from that activity from pretty much everyone in her life. There really are crazy people out there.

As for cultural sensibilities, it is not only touchy for young girls to go out with older male birders who may or may not have the best intentions, but also married women. My husband and I devote a lot of time to our daughter and rarely get to spend time alone together. I don't have to ask him how he feels about me spending five hours enjoying a recreational activity with another man.

The other point about this being a recreational activity is that it's hard to rationalize putting off certain obligations for something that does not generate an income.

I like spending time with my family, and I need to come back home in one piece . If that makes me less of a birder, so be it.