{"id":165622,"date":"2020-12-30T13:30:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T21:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=165622"},"modified":"2021-02-04T13:57:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T21:57:30","slug":"this-wildlife-conservationist-is-helping-more-birders-find-their-place-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/this-wildlife-conservationist-is-helping-more-birders-find-their-place-outside","title":{"rendered":"This Wildlife Conservationist is Helping More Birders Find Their Place Outside"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time Corina Newsome saw a pileated woodpecker, she wept. It was winter in Northeast Ohio and thick flakes were blanketing the earth outside. She\u2019d learned earlier that day on a local radio station that someone spotted the redheaded woodpecker in a nearby forest. It was her unicorn bird that\u2014though common in Ohio\u2014had evaded her many searches the last 12 months. A little snow wasn\u2019t going to stop her.<\/p>\n

So she asked her friend\u2019s mom for a ride, and the pair drove nearly two hours through the blizzard to a nondescript pullout and started trekking. It was the kind of \u201cbig snow\u201d that falls to earth as if in slow motion, she recalls today. Corina slogged through the soft piles, listening for the bird\u2019s distinct call\u2014\u201clike a monkey laughing.\u201d Finally, through hushed snowfall and held breaths, Corina spotted it: the flaming-red cap of the crow-size bird. She dropped to her knees in awe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most magical experience,\u201d she recalls from her Georgia apartment on a video call earlier this year. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a time when common North American birds sounded uninteresting to Corina, who spent much of her college career studying exotic animals. The now-27-year-old grew up in Philadelphia with her nose buried in wildlife encyclopedias, studying species from different corners of the world and jotting down her favorites in a journal. After college, she landed jobs at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Nashville Zoo, conducting animal shows and environmental education talks. Still, local birds seemed almost boring by comparison. Furthermore, in order to recognize them in the wild, you must memorize hundreds of species by sight and sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, who does that?\u201d she quips.<\/p>\n

These days, Corina does.<\/p>\n

As with most passion projects, Corina\u2019s started small: an unassuming blue jay that caught her attention with its bright-blue feathers and imposing size. Soon, identifying a brown thrasher or a robin felt like finding treasure, Corina says.<\/p>\n

Now birds are part of Corina\u2019s profession. She\u2019s been working in wildlife conservation in various capacities for the past eight years and is currently a graduate student in ornithology at Georgia Southern University and a community engagement manager at Georgia Audubon. In her blog, Hood Naturalist<\/a>, she writes that birds changed her life. That if \u201chope\u201d were a physical being, it would be a bird.<\/p>\n

Today, Corina wants others to experience the same life-giving transformation. More specifically, she wants more Black people to enjoy birding, and she wants it to feel safe for them.<\/p>\n

Until a year ago, Corina was the only Black birder she knew. She might be the only one other people know, too.<\/p>\n

Many of the people she\u2019s birded with are white men who sport khakis and beige vests with pockets that droop under the weight of their many gadgets. Corina acknowledges that there\u2019s a time and place for the utilitarian uniform of the trade, but when she simply wants to check out the local birds or go on one of her regular \u201ctreasure\u201d hunts, she opts for clothes that feel more like her: bold earrings, skinny jeans, bright shirts. Sometimes, she tucks her cropped hair under a colorful baseball cap. But for as much as dressing like this preserves her identity, it can make Corina feel out of place in a community where she is decidedly in the minority. Ninety-three percent of birders identify as white, with the average birder age 55, according to 2011 data<\/a> from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n

Corina says she\u2019s often felt out of place in outdoor spaces. While she hasn\u2019t experienced overt racism on the trail, she says, she has heard microaggressions within birding groups.<\/p>\n

In 2013, J. Drew Lanham, a writer, ecologist and birder, wrote the rules of birding as a Black person<\/a> as a poke at the racism Black birders face outdoors. He writes that no Black birder should wear a hoodie and that they should prepare to be confused with the one other Black birder people know. \u201cYou\u2019re a Black man sneaking around in the nether regions of a suburban park\u2014at dusk, with a spotting scope,\u201d he writes. \u201cGuess what? You\u2019re going to have some prolonged conversations with the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corina says she thinks about these \u201crules\u201d when she\u2019s birding outside and is accustomed to correcting her behavior to make white recreationists feel more comfortable. When a hiker passes her while she\u2019s bird-watching, she reflexively raises her binoculars to her eyes to show them why she\u2019s on the trail. \u201cI kind of anticipate that people will be uncomfortable by me standing there,\u201d she says, \u201cSo I make myself as least threatening as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

This kind of tension was thrust into the national spotlight earlier this year when a white woman called the police on a Black man who was bird-watching in New York City\u2019s Central Park. The man, Christian Cooper, had asked the woman, Amy Cooper (no relation), to leash her dog, per the park rules. She refused and called the police to report that he was threatening her. Christian Cooper recorded the incident, which was later posted to social media. In the video, Amy Cooper emphasizes Christian Cooper\u2019s race multiple times.<\/p>\n

Four days later, Corina and some 30 other Black scientists\u2014members of an online group called Black AF in STEM\u2014devised a way to celebrate Black birders like Christian Cooper. The result: Black Birders Week, a seven-day celebration of Black birders and nature enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

It came together in 48 hours. People created graphics and planned daily engagements on Instagram and Twitter, including the #postabird challenge that encouraged folks to post a bird photo or bird fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecent events have shed light on the obstacles and potential dangers Black people face while enjoying outdoor recreation,\u201d read an Instagram post by the organizing group, Black AF in Stem. \u201cNature is meant to be enjoyed by everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of that week, the movement\u2019s social accounts generated hundreds of millions of impressions, and two livestreams on the National Audubon Society\u2019s Facebook page attracted about 200,000 people.<\/p>\n

The effort has since grown into a movement that\u2019s persisted beyond the June celebration, and Corina hopes it will continue catalyzing change and normalizing being Black outdoors. Black AF in Stem is planning another Black Birders Week for 2021.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s a long way to go. For all the hardship Corina has experienced since Black Birders Week began\u2014the difficult questions from people on social media, the online racism\u2014she\u2019s also witnessed the good that comes from mobilizing people around a cause. The Black Birders Week social accounts have swelled with followers, and brands have shared the message widely. Conversations about racism outdoors are becoming more frequent and nuanced.<\/p>\n

And, for maybe the first time, Newsome isn\u2019t the only Black birder she knows.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time Corina Newsome saw a pileated woodpecker, she wept. It was winter in Northeast Ohio and thick flakes were blanketing the earth outside. She\u2019d learned earlier that day on a local radio station that someone spotted the redheaded woodpecker in a nearby forest. It was her unicorn bird that\u2014though common in Ohio\u2014had evaded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14208,"featured_media":165827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[727],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-165622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-latest-posts"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/news\/this-wildlife-conservationist-is-helping-more-birders-find-their-place-outside","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"This Wildlife Conservationist is Helping More Birders Find Their Place Outside","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/this-wildlife-conservationist-is-helping-more-birders-find-their-place-outside","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/this-wildlife-conservationist-is-helping-more-birders-find-their-place-outside"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/12\/Corina-Photo.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/12\/Corina-Photo.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333"},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Grothjan"}],"creator":["Sarah Grothjan"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["latest posts"],"dateCreated":"2020-12-30T21:30:22Z","datePublished":"2020-12-30T21:30:22Z","dateModified":"2021-02-04T21:57:30Z"},"rendered":"