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In 1900, birds were something you shot and pinned to a hat. Then an ornithologist named Frank Chapman suggested people go out on Christmas and count them instead. Today, a family will drive four and a half hours across the desert, three kids in the back seat and every one of them holding binoculars, just to spend a weekend looking up.
Recorded live at the Maryland Outdoor Recreation Summit in Ocean City, Maryland, host Missy Rentz sits down with Wayne Klockner, Executive Director of the American Birding Association, in front of a room full of the people whose job is getting the rest of us outside. A week earlier, Wayne had taken Missy on her very first birding trip at Assateague, where she spent two hours learning what to look at (and mistaking pine cones for birds).
In this episode:
- From Hat Feathers to the Christmas Bird Count: How birding started as a way to stop the killing.
- A Million Ways to Bird: Why watching the feeder in your backyard counts just as much as chasing a rarity across the country.
- “That’s Not Your Fault, That’s the Leader’s Fault”: Why beginners feel intimidated on bird walks, and whose job it is to fix that.
- Missy’s First Morning at Assateague: How birding turned out to be less about competition and more about learning to be present.
- Not Just Retirees in Vests: Why young people are trading screen time for binoculars, plus the ABA’s sold-out young birder camps and city Community Weekends.
- What Birds Do for Us: From birdsong at lunch to the canary in the coal mine, why birds matter beyond their beauty.
- For Parks, Tourism and Retailers: Interpretive signs, scheduled bird walks, and the clothing companies already designing gear for birders.
- How to Start: Find other birders, get a basic pair of binoculars (8x40 or 7x35), download the free Merlin app, and pick up a field guide.
- Birding All Year: Why fall migration, which runs into early December, is a great time to begin.
- No Yard Required: How Christian Cooper turned a Manhattan balcony into a stop for birds with native plants.
Recommended reading: The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley · Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper
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