With more than 400 species of migrating birds and waterfowl on the wing this season, Minnesota is one of the best places in the country to marvel at the tremendous diversity of birds on the planet. 

As for the diversity of birdwatchers – that’s still a work in progress. 

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 96 million people–or about one in three Americans–now take an active part in watching birds, feeding birds, or maintaining habitats where birds will thrive. Yet surveys continue to show that people of color and other marginalized communities are consistently underrepresented in the world of birding, which remains more than 90 percent white. 

Birder and wildlife photographer Monica Bryand is working to change that. One of the co-founders of the Urban Birding Collective, Bryand and her co-leaders now host nearly 70 birding events around the state every year, hosted in partnership with the National Parks Service and other nonprofit groups, all designed to invite BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities to feel welcome and included in what’s become the fastest growing hobby in North America. While black participation in the birdwatching has long been less reflective of the population, the 2020 confrontation between a white woman in Central Park and Christian Cooper, the Black birder who recently won an Emmy for the National Geographic show “Extraordinary Birds”, brought the problem of racism in natural spaces into high relief. 

“When we started in 2018, we used to say that we were about creating  ‘safe and welcoming’ experiences in nature, but after that we changed the language to ‘welcoming and inclusive,’” says Bryand. “We can’t guarantee people’s safety, but we want to create a culture and environment within birding where everyone feels included and valued.”

Thanks to your support for the Minneapolis Parks Foundation’s People for Parks Fund, the Urban Birding Collective will be hosting two events this month, aimed at teaching parks users how to look and listen more closely to the bird life all around us. “Before I became a birder, I thought, ‘Don’t all sparrows look alike?’ But once you get into it you begin to discover there are so many different kinds of sparrows, and fall is a great time to find them hanging out in fields,” says Bryand. “One of the things I love about birding is just discovering the diversity that we have right here in Minnesota.”

While the pandemic inspired a nearly 40 percent increase in users of ebird apps like Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID, not all bird watchers are building a life list of the species they’ve encountered. Some birders hope to bring a little more purpose and adventure to nature walks by tracking birds, while many others are content learning about the birds that share their own backyards. For Bryand, her passion is photographing and posting a bird a day photo to her Facebook followers, a hobby she’s kept up for more than 15 years.” I try to post 200 different Minnesota species each year to show folks what we have right here in the state. The 166 endangered and threatened species is my special project,” she says. “At this point, I’m down to my last 10.” 

This fall may be a great time to capture them. In the weeks to come, the Mississippi River Flyway will transform into a superhighway for hundreds of species of birds, from swallows and other songbirds, to ducks, nighthawks, and tundra swans. To learn more about what to look for, join the Urban Birding Collective for these upcoming events made possible in part by your support for the People for Parks Fund:

September 14: Visit Boom Island Park at 724 Sibley Street in Northeast Minneapolis for “Junior Ranger: Fins and Feathers” and partnership program with the National Parks Service. From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., members of the Urban Birding Collective will be on hand to host both biking and hiking birding experiences.

September 28: Join up for BioBlitz at Theodore Wirth Park,  a volunteer community citizen science event that involves discovering and identifying as many species as possible within a specific location and over a defined time period. This fun data collection effort is a collaborative effort between local scientists, naturalists, park lovers, park staff, and partner organizations. To sign up, visit: https://form.jotform.com/242145554641151