Birding Pins, Stickers and Patches: The evidence of a birding life

I’ve only recently started collecting birding pins and patches, but they are something I have noticed for years on the gear of other birders. Pins and patches on field bags or vests seem to be the thing for birders the way stickers are for skiers and hikers on car-mounted top boxes: They are visible evidence of where you’ve birded, the festivals you’ve attended or the organizations you support. And they are visible building blocks of the people side of the birding community

Not to be confused with a local birding spot (also known as a patch), bird patches—the sew-on kind—have been around for a while. Google “History of patches” and find the patch has its roots in the military, with a veering into various counter cultures in the 20th and 21st centuries. Is birding a counter culture? You be the judge.

Birding may not historically have the same cool factor as say, Punk or Hippies, but that is changing. Of course birding is cool! Sharing with the world that you are a birder carries more meaning than simply making a fashion statement (for one, a bird patch or pin transcends fashion all together): A bird patch or pin might indicate conservation advocacy, breadth of travel, bragging rights for species seen, membership in an organization of bird lovers, political affiliation, feminist inclination, place of origin, and so on. These are conversation starters for people who already have birds in common! Yay for pins and patches!

OK, a few rules about pins and patches, however (and this is only my opinion):

Sewing this year’s Feminist Bird Club patch on my birding field bag.

Wear only pins and patches of where you’ve been and birded, or groups you actually participate in or support

Years ago, a birding guide in Italy shared his zeal for patches, and asked me to send him one from my part of the world when I returned home. So I did, from the Othello Crane Festival in Eastern Washington State, a place he had definitely never been. At the time I did think twice about his request, but mainly over concern that I had his correct mailing address, not on the ethics of wearing a patch from somewhere he’d never birded.

I admit, calling it “ethics of wearing a patch from somewhere you’ve never birded” is a bit rich. If someone wants to do that, fine. But I believe there is an honor to earning the pin or patch, which leads me to my next rule.

The sale of a pin or patch should support something greater

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has this one down. They sell pins EVERYWHERE in the UK, and I mean beyond nature shops. You could find a little stand or dish of pins at every kiosk or gas station (it seemed). Those pins and membership support nature preserves all over Britain, and help mainstream RSPB in that country in a way that our US bird orgs might envy. I stocked up on these pins as gifts while birding at the Minsmere Preserve, and wear one on my hat to this day.

I’ve got examples in this post of other orgs producing pins or patches such as No Line Left Behind, Feminist Bird Club and Seattle Audubon. The sale and/or wearing of the pin or patch tells others you are a mission-led birder supporting bird conservation or greater representation in the birding community. The badge has got to send a message that benefits wild birds.

So no, bird patches of sports teams do not count.

Friend Cambria Cox’s bird pins, one an actual patch mounted on a pin back by the look of it! The Bald Eagle pin is from Glacier National Park.

Molly Adams, founder of Feminist Bird Club (FBC) pin and patch collection, including 3 from FBC (bottom left).

Singing your own praises is A-OK

You may notice a few volunteer hours pins in this post, the most impressive one from Izzy Arevalo Wong, whose pin below shows her completion of 1000 hours for Seattle Audubon! Not only that, but she completed a two-year Master Birder program, also below.

Likewise, a pin or patch from someplace far flung is equally important to wear, so long as you’ve really been there and birded.

Them’s bragging rights! Izzy Arévalo Wong’s Seattle Audubon Master Birder Patch (2001), Seattle Audubon pin for 1000 hours of volunteer time, and a High Island patch, where she birded several times.

That’s it from me, but what do you think? Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

My hat pins: Western Screech Owl carved by my dad, Tony Angell. The Common Ringed Plover is from the Minsmere Nature Preserve gift shop, in Suffolk, UK, run by the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds. The Seattle Audubon pin is for my completion of 100 hours of volunteer service, now far surpassed (I’m closer to 500, but nowhere near Izzy’s 1000 hours!).

In The Field: Feminism and Birding in Argentina

The inaugural walk of Colectiva Observadores de Aves (COA) Feminista, at the Vicente Lopez Nature Reserve, Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 2018.

Birding and conservation. Birding and environmental advocacy. Birding and progressive politics. Birding and feminism. See where I am going here?

Some people want to keep politics out of birding all together, but I am of the mind that politics rule our lives in every decision we make, even in our recreational lives. Birding and conservation—and I lump reproductive rights of women into conservation—go together, in my opinion. A woman’s choice to control her child bearing means less human impact on the planet, something our planet desperately needs.

Strong women have long been pioneers in the birding world, contesting chauvinism and making history as authors, artists, scientists, field guides and leaders. But the word “feminist” didn’t overtly enter the lexicon of birders until the advent of The Feminist Bird Club by Molly Adams in 2016. Adams’ use of the word and its weight with birding—to the ire of some and the delight of others—brought a distinct political and social leaning.

And it was this social and political vigor ( and club mission statement offering a safe place for anyone identifying as female or non-binary, and their allies) which attracted Victoria Boano of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Boano, 37, is an translator, editor and writer, and the author of the children’s book in Spanish, Aves de Buenos Aires. She is also the founder of the first international sister chapter of the Feminist Bird Club, called Colectiva de Observadoras de Aves Feminista (Feminist Birders Collective), or COA Feminista.

Victoria Boano at an event for her book, Aves de Buenos Aires.

Boano brought a very specific angle to the Feminist Bird Club ethic, too: Abortion rights. It was not a stretch to combine abortion with a spin-off of the Feminist Bird Club, as the US Feminist Bird Club donates proceeds from bird badge sales to a variety of non-profits supporting progressive causes, among them women’s health clinics that provide reproductive services.

Abortion came close to being legalized in Argentina last summer, and the debate about it was fraught and headline making. Boano established COA Feminista before the vote in Argentina was determined, when the political climate was intense on this issue throughout the country. Those for legalizing abortion wore green bandannas and makeup, while those opposed wear light blue bandannas. Despite this latest setback for abortion rights advocates, their outreach continues, as you will see below in the frequent appearance of those green bandannas among the COA Feminista members.

I emailed with Boano throughout December 2018 and below is the resulting interview with her about this group of women birders bringing a social cause and environmental agenda with them into the field. All photos courtesy of COA Feminista.

The group walking through the wetlands at the Vicente Lopez site, Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 2018.

Why did you decide to create this group?

I'm not an expert birder by (any) means, but I was inspired by an article posted in the NYTimes about Molly Adam's Feminist Bird Club, and thought it was a fantastic idea, so I contacted her first to do the Feminist Birding Club here in BA, a chapter of her group, but then it morphed into a thing of its own when other members started to join in. 

Once I decided I wanted to be a part of something like this, I contacted a very experienced birder and journalist to tell her about my idea, and she loved it, and told others, and soon we decided to meet at somebody's home and the rest is history. 

What is the demographic make up of the members? age range, professions, political leanings, how many members?

I live in the city of Buenos Aires (the group consists of members living in Buenos Aires city and different areas of the province of Buenos Aires. The age range is wide, 20 to 50 something, I would say.

Most of us are biology students or biologists or future park rangers, but we also have a couple of wildlife experts, journalists, a professional cello player and myself, I'm a translator and author. We are all left-leaning but with different perspectives on some things. For now, we only welcome women and dissident identities. On our last couple of walks we have been around 20.

Flyer for the second bird walk of the Colectiva Observadores de Aves Feminista, the bird wearing the abortion rights green bandanna. Design by Josefina Wolf.

Are there other chapters of this group in Argentina?

Not that we know of. 

Does your group have formal scientific ambition, such as citizen science auditing for conservation? 

We have discussed it, and we have an eBird account to record the species we find in each walk. Some of us are scientists so we try to make each walk an educational experience: those who know more about birds or plants always share their knowledge with others. We are taking it slow because most of us have careers, families and other political commitments.

How do you recruit for your group? 

Word of mouth mostly, and we also get a lot of responses when we post on FaceBook, because our members share the event in their walls and it reaches people who might be interested and think it's a wonderful idea!

COA Feminista at Bernal Nature Reserve, Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 2018.

I notice a connection to the abortion rights movement with the color green and the bandanna. Is this intentional?

Yes, very much so. We make it a condition to be a part of the group, to agree with the legalization and de-penalization of abortion in Argentina. We can disagree on many things but we decided we at least have to agree on this. 

I've read that feminist groups are very active in Argentina. How mainstream is the movement? What percentage of Argentine women (an estimate or your perception is fine) embrace feminism? 

I really can't say that, but I do see that a high number of young people consider themselves feminists. For older generations, it's a little bit trickier, they are more traditional and feminism and feminist were considered and used by some as insults. I do think that now that feminism is present in mainstream media (not all the time, but almost every day there is something happening connected with gender violence, feminism, women and transgender rights, etc), it has gained a little bit of a more positive connotation. It's a huge step forward, and the result of patient work by activists for years, that now everybody is talking openly about abortion and other issues. 

What is the atmosphere in Argentina that inspires and supports such feminist groups? 

It depends on where you are. The city of Buenos Aires is a little bit more progressive, but if you go to the provinces, particularly in the north and center (of the country), the situation is very (traditional). Abortion is not legal and (women are) even penalized (if they seek an illegal one). Women are murdered and raped every day (as an example of the disregard and complacency for women’s rights in general).

It's not the atmosphere (in Argentina) that is supportive, it's the activists' groups' work and the fact that women and other identities feel like they (have) had enough. We have gay marriage and other very advanced legislation but abortion is still not legal. 

Is the feminist movement younger women or also older women, 50s and up?

Some older women paved the way, but now it's the daughters' revolution, as Luciana Peker aptly described it (in this article in Ms Magazine, Inside Argentina’s Revolution of the Daughters).

Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus) at the Bernal Reserve, September 2018.

What kind of response does your group get when in the field--support? curiosity? 

Yes, but most people don't say anything. I think they are surprised, we have gotten some questions. We usually go to less common places so we don't run into other birders. We have created quite a ruckus in the birding "scene" of Buenos Aires, a very male-dominated field, that's for sure, but they have mostly been very polite and have not contacted us or discouraged us in any way so far. 

What are the birding hot spots on your route, in BA for instance?

We try to visit different parks and reserves in the city. We have been to Reserva Costanera Norte, Reserva Ecológica Vicente López and Reserva de Bernal. We try to go to urban green spaces that are in danger or not very well known, as a way of claiming that space and showing that it is a good birding space. 

More experienced birders in the group share information with the others.

At Reserva Ecológica Costanera Norte, in Buenos Aires, October 2018.

Thank you, Victoria! Portions of this interview have been edited for clarity.

If you would like to learn more about country national women birding around the world, you might enjoy this story about Uganda Women Birders, or wildlife guide Regina Ribeiro in Brazil.

A Girl's Gotta Bird: How Millennial women are expanding the birding world

Since donning my birder hat years ago in my early 20s, I was used to being the only birder in the room (or field, to be more accurate) under 30, and quite possibly the only woman under 30 there at all. Birding wasn’t something most of my same-age friends wanted to do.

When explaining to peers my passion for watching wild birds, people were receptive to the idea as a novelty, but rarely interested in joining me. “Yeh, that’s cool,” they’d say in that gen X way of dismissing something with a pseudo affirmative.

Happily, those days are over. Now when I share birding exploits with peers, they want in on it!

Helen Macdonald started us down the birding is edgy/cool/not nerdy path with her H is for Hawk. Her memoir is unlike any other birding memoir for its greater message of grief, history, and triumph of females in a man’s world (Helen and her hawk). As a memoir alone it stands out, but as a bird-appreciating memoir (falconry isn’t exactly birding, but close) it is special for its female author. Thank you, Helen.

What delights me even more is the recent rise of young women (much younger than I am!) taking up birding as a no-apologies downright cool practice. Using their social media savvy, their inclusiveness, their creativity and their sociability, they are bringing birding to new audiences more than anyone I have witnessed in the years I’ve been beating the birding-is-cool drum to younger women (which I used to be).

This critical mass of girl birders is what it takes to bring birding into the mainstream, and in particular, this current generation of women in their 20s.

What are they doing differently than earlier generations? Using social media. Teaching themselves. Inviting others to join them. And finding that birding as a practice brings each of them peace in their lives.

The women here are all under 30—some barely over 20—and each one is breathing new life into this pastime through example of time in the field her way.

Adams leading a bird walk for New York City Audubon in Floyd Bennett Field, 2014. Courtesy of Tiffany Adams.

I first heard Tiffany Adams on the podcast Sound Effect from the local NPR affiliate KNKX in Seattle. She was talking about her love of birding with her friend Rasheena Fountain. Go and listen to the 10 minute clip and you will be as intrigued as I was after hearing her story. She is determined to rewrite the narrative of what a typical birder looks like, considering that she has encountered few other women of color on her birding path.

Adams, 28, got her start birding in NYC, where she is from, joining a birding meet up in Central Park. From there, she expanded her practice through bird walks and eventually led her own bird walks as a volunteer for NYC Audubon. She has made a name for herself in the North American birding community as an expert for urban birding, and spoke about her experience as a speaker at the 2018 Biggest Year in American Birding at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Ohio.

Now living in Seattle, Adams birds alone frequently in city parks but plans to resume leading bird walks via her Facebook page. “Birding is an escape for me,“ she says, of her love of solitary birding. “But even when I try to escape people, I meet amazing people through birding!”

Inaugural weekend of the Chicago Feminist Bird Club. L to R Feminist Bird Club founder Molly Adams, Chicago chapter founders Bridget Kiernan and Frances Kane, May 2018. Courtesy of Bridget Kiernan and Frances Kane.

Another New Yorker, Molly Adams, 28, is quietly becoming one of the most famous Millennial birders in the country, through her founding of the Feminist Bird Club in 2016. Seeing a need for a safe, inclusive group for women, LGBTQ, non-binary, trans and people of color wanting to bird in the city, she put out the word on her social media and organized her first bird walk. What was intended for just her own city quickly caught hold in the ambitions of other young women around the country, and world. “Many of our members would not necessarily consider themselves women, and they’re most often the people who feel the least safe and unwelcome in traditional birding settings,” says Adams. “I try to articulate that the club focuses on the safety of (all) identities.”

Little did she expect it, but Adams had started a movement of young women birders wanting something more, specifically with a feminist angle. The Feminist Bird Club now has chapters in Boston, Chicago, Buenos Aires and more in development (a Michigan chapter launched this month). Adams has been featured in the New York Times and interviewed on the ABA podcast. Holding down a full time job and coordinating monthly walks and the expansion of the Feminist Bird Club has proven to be a nice problem to have, but Adams is still concerned about doing it thoughtfully. Currently the Feminist Bird Club is simply a labor of love, not a formal non-profit. Adams donates money raised from annual Feminist Bird Club patch sales to a different social justice non profit every year. Black Lives Matter has been the recipient for 2018.

Karla Noboa (left, with blue wrist watch) leading a bird walk in Boston. Courtesy of Karla Noboa.

Karla Noboa, 25, of Boston felt out of place on most birding walks, often being the only young woman, and the only person of color. When she learned of the Feminist Bird Club model, she contacted Adams and kicked off the first satellite chapter of the Feminist Bird Club in Boston . A natural curiosity for the outdoors is what fueled Noboa’s interest in birding. “I studied Natural Resources in college and want to know what every plant and animal is any time I’m outside!” she says. She now leads near monthly Club walks in the Boston area.

Frances Kane and Bridget Kiernan, both 22, started the Chicago chapter of Feminist Bird Club while still college students. In fact, they met in a bird identification class, which inspired them to take on birding as a life practice. Like Noboa, they did not know Adams prior, and were inspired by reading about her to reach out via Instagram and to start the Chicago chapter of the Feminist Bird Club.

Adams’s model for the Feminist Bird Club appealed to all three women, as they wanted to bird on their terms. The idea that you could run a birding walk with novices and all learn together gave each woman a different way to learn and grow as a birder, without the traditional structure of an expert leading. “Guided bird walks have been intimidating for me in the past, because I couldn’t keep up with the pace that the guide would be able to identify birds,” says Kane. “I think that structure of a guided bird walk where there is a single expert feeds into the stereotype of birding being something you need to be good at/something reserved for other experts, versus a way to simply enjoy your natural surroundings.”

Not to suggest that there is any overlooking of birding protocols: they are very serious about getting it right. They are all avid users of field guides and eBird, and follow the ABA Birding Ethics standard for their walks, and encourage others who join them to do the same.

Birding as each woman does outside the traditional birding organization, they draw artists, activists, “even nurses!” says Kiernan. The Feminist Bird Club model specifically invites participants not represented in the mainstream birding world, and offers a safe place to learn about birds. As a result, curious non-birders join and leave forever changed. “Opening birding up to those beyond the hobby’s typical demographic is valuable and increases public urgency towards issues like climate change and environmental degradation,” says Kane.

Ultimately, what makes these millennial women effective birding advocates is the ease with which they navigate sharing their experience with others—even as some might describe themselves as introverts—and their intent toward greater good. “I enjoy the duality of birding as both personal and social, birding has allowed me to connect with people I would not have encountered otherwise and I am proud and excited to fostering a birding community in Chicago and to be apart of the birding community at large!” says Kiernan. A perfect summary.

You can find out more about bird walks hosted by these women via the following links:

Feminist Bird Club (New York)

Feminist Bird Club Chicago

Feminist Bird Club Boston

Feminist Bird Club Michigan

Tiffany Adams