101 Species: Birding as a Mindfulness Practice
The Green Heron has a range across the United States. I first identified a Green Heron in 2022 (Photo by Sean Sime, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
Beginning Birding
I first identified a Bewick’s Wren at a wildlife refuge in Washington state in September 2020 (Photo from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
I took up birding in the summer of 2020, at a time when I was largely confined to the house. Perhaps you, Dear Readers, also remember this time. I was struck by the reality that beyond the turning of the seasons, the changes in nature, and the gifts from the Humanities, very little of the modern world was accessible or helpful to me in that time. Since that time, I have maintained the practice, and in the early summer of 2026, with the help of the designers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I learned I had identified 101 species of birds. I began by paying attention to the bird in my backyard, and then the birds that were in natural areas around my home, and finally the birds I saw wherever I happened to be.
The Necessity of Noticing
I first identified a Golden-crowned Kinglet at a state park in northern California in November 2022 (Photo from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
Like any mindfulness practice, Birding requires patience, open concentration, and awareness. I found it fruitful to go to natural spaces simply to be quiet and listen. Birdsong was almost always my first cue to attend to birds in the area. Noticing is a mindfulness practice, whether the focus is on internal or external phenomena. Meditation is often seen as a practice that requires discipline, but it begins with openness.
Birds and Spirituality
Like any mindfulness practice, paying attention to birds has a spiritual significance. I’ve been in different places in the world, some where birds seem unimportant to others, some where birds have a spiritual significance to the people and the culture. For example, the Māori hero, Māui, transformed himself into a hawk when he learned the origin of fire. Zeus disguised himself as a bird in Greek Mythology. In Christian iconography, I once saw a portrayal of Mary receiving the Annunciation from a dove.
In 2020, I identified a Bald Eagle for the first time while kayaking on the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon (Photo by Scott Heidorn of Alaska, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
Mindfulness and Imagination
As a child, I became interested in stories about birds when I first read Brother Eagle, Sister Sky (1991), by Susan Jeffers. As a student of Psychology, I first became interested in how birds communicate in 1996 while participating in a data analysis laboratory at Clark University. As a writer, I began imagining a new story about how birdsong could include a way to identify a bird. I started writing On The Wing (2021), a novel about a family of Dark-eyed Juncos, on McGuire Island, in the summer of 2020, and finished it in 2021. If it ever becomes available in print, Dear Readers, I will let you know.
I first identified a Dark-Eyed Junco in Portland’s Forest Park in 2020. A family of Dark-Eyed Juncos became the protagonists for a book I wrote called On The Wing (2021) (Photo from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology).