Look—pretty bird.
“Sounds amazing and right up my alley for ME!”
That’s what I wrote in my books list spreadsheet when I first heard about “Better Living Through Birding” by Christian Cooper.
I forgot all about it. Until I happened across the Condé Nast Traveler YouTube video featuring a Black birder and I thought I wonder if he ever gets weird interactions like the one in that Central Park incident. Then I did some digging and found out, he IS the one in that Central Park incident! AND he wrote the book I’d already added to my books list.
Checked out the audiobook from the library immediately. His birding tips got me out in the backyard trying to imitate bird calls so that I can eventually tell the difference between the call of a white winged dove and the call of a Eurasian collared dove.
He also writes about growing up closeted and coming out in college, working at Marvel, traveling to all of these cool locations like Tanzania and Ecuador and the Himalaya to check out some birds, his activism, his family, (prepare for some tears on that one), and frames it all through his experience with birdwatching.
If you see someone outside getting their power walk on suddenly stop and pull out an ear bud and stare up at the trees, it’s probably me.
Shannon Yvonne Moreau 