Birding as Birders See It

A review by Nick Minor

The Birders: A Melodic Journey through Northern Colombia by Gregg Bleakney

WhereNext, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y2gwr5dq

As a birder, a communicator, and more simply, a person who just loves a good story, I’m always elated to find media that succeeds at what should be a simple task: depicting birding as birders see it. This past February, a film titled The Birders: A Melodic Journey through Northern Colombia came out that beautifully demonstrates this sort of success.

But before we dive deeper into The Birders, let’s agree on some terms. After all, we could mean many things by, “birding as birders see it.” What we need is some description of the experience of birding—some boxes to check—that we could use to “test” a piece of media. Let’s give it a go: birding is an entryway to learning deeply about the natural world and our place in it. It’s a means of scratching our innate, biophilic itches. It’s an opportunity to experience new places and new cultures and to grow. It’s even a form of competition, one that’s as varied as it is intellectually stimulating. Any piece of media that depicts most if not all these qualities, at least in my book, successfully depicts birding as birders see it.

Tied together, all these qualities of birding have a profound impact on those who do it, making it a much richer, more deeply human experience than is often depicted. Just think: how often do you see media that portrays how birding helps us find ourselves through constant rediscovery of the wild world? Or how birding tethers us back into the rich community of life on earth, often connecting us with each other in the process? In these times when the living world is increasingly imperiled, it seems such an activity is a potent and necessary antidote. This is especially the case when it comes to inspiring the next generation of naturalists and conservationists. And yet, the potential for broadly impactful, naturalist-driven storytelling on any platform still seems conspicuously untapped.

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