A Feminist Revolution In Birding
Wherever Noah Strycker goes, he tends to be the center of attention. In 2015, Strycker, then 29, set a world record by tracking down 6,042 bird species in 41 countries. Since then, he’s been a birding superstar, headlining festivals and guiding walks around the globe.
But for a bunch of the women who attended a walk Strycker led in Key Biscayne, Florida in October 2017, he didn’t turn out to be the main attraction. Nor did the Magnificent Frigatebirds, the Indigo Buntings, or the dozens of other species the group was lucky enough to spot.
Instead, the six women, who hadn’t met before, found themselves drawn to one another.
Most of them had been on walks with Miami’s Audubon chapter and other bird clubs; several had been birding for over a decade. But they’d never felt comfortable in the birding community.
Some were alienated by its focus on identification and fast-paced listing. “I have always been more about, ‘Let’s sit and let’s watch, and maybe I’m not going to figure out exactly what subspecies this is, or maybe I’m not going to reach 100, but I’m going to really enjoy the time I have with these organisms,’” says Kirsten Hines, 43, a wildlife photographer, herpetologist, and Tropical Audubon Society board member. “And I find most birders, they’re not into that; they’re happy to hear it and move on.”On walks, the women sometimes found other birders — especially men, who tended to be in charge — cold and condescending. “When I first started birding, I felt intimidated,” says Eliana Ardila Kramer, 38, a surgical veterinary technician who grew up in Colombia and Aruba, moving to Miami as a teenager. “I knew that I didn’t know much, but I also felt that I was reminded of how little I knew.”
For example, some guys seemed to condemn her for not knowing common North American species like cardinals. “Well, I was a new birder I didn’t know what that was,” she says. “When you’re starting, you don’t know these things.”
The Strycker walk was different, she says, partly because he set a friendly tone but mostly because there were so many young women, and “the women took over the walk.”
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