Close of the year has many of us thinking on New Years well wishes and gift giving for the people in our lives. My favorite gesture is sending holiday cards in the mail. Wouldn’t it be great if you could support wild birds and sister birders in one holiday sweep?
I’ve rounded up a list to inspire your love of wild birds, spread holiday cheer among your loved ones, and support the many creatives in our field of birding who are producing everything from visual arts to books to guided walks and classes.
These creatives reflect a diverse group of birders in demographics across age, ethnicity, region and identification, though they are all North America-based. This is not a sponsored post and none of the links are commissioned. Your support will impact them and their efforts directly.
Holiday cards
Illustrated images by Laurel Mundy. Photo cards by Corvida Raven.
I’m an old-fashioned snail-mail card sender and gather a stockpile of cards every fall. This year I am turning to illustrator Laurel Mundy and photographer Corvida Raven for my card stash. Both women offer original works in card form, as well as prints if you want to go bigger. Laurel also creates ornaments, stickers and pins.
Other artists who offer cards are Liz Clayton Fuller and Elizabeth Auer.
State Backyard Bird Guides
Send your loved ones a state-specific backyard bird guide for the new year. Wen Rockoff of Birds and Friends and Kate Dolamore of Little Nuthatch both produce charming US State backyard bird prints. Stay and peruse their sites a while, they produce other art, too.
Wen also designed the (backyard local-to-me) Hutton’s Vireo emoticon for this very site!
Wall art to enjoy year-round: State backyard bird prints and 2022 bird calendars. Clockwise from top left: Kate Dolamore; Emilie Chen and Angela Calabrese; Wen Rockoff and Alecia Smith.
Calendars
The calendars included here feature the work of photographers based on the West Coast of the US and their work reflects the beauty of birds along this flyway. Emilie Chen and Angela Calabrese from Oregon produced a calendar with different birds every month, while Alicia Smith’s calendar (all net proceeds benefitting Ventura Audubon) focuses entirely on dreamy images of shorebirds.
Special One-of-a-kind Gifts
Many of these creatives are multi-hyphenate talents, and two produce very distinct art worth noting for their originality.
Tiffany Adams creates custom bird sculptures made from pipe cleaners. This humble medium turns to gold in Tiffany’s hands. Each bird is made to order and you can request a specific species. I am proud owner of a Hutton’s Vireo and Vesper Sparrow, commissioned as namesake gifts for my kids. You can email Tiffany directly at Tadams23@gmail.com for commissions.
Casey Girard produces delicate paintings of birds on autumn leaves. I am astonished at the sheer fragility of this artwork, and the way the leaves behave like archival paper in Casey’s renderings. Casey shares completed works available for sale at their Etsy site.
Wild bird themed gifts, books and clothing. From top left, Tiffany Adams’ pipe cleaner sculptures (Hutton’s Vireo foreground and Vesper Sparrow background); Casey Girard painting on leaf; books by sister birder authors; T-shirt by Shayna Marchese of Sleeping Owl Studio.
Clothing
Women-owned Bird Collective offers clothing and accessories, much of it cross collaborations with other bird organizations (such as Hawk Watch and local Audubon chapters) and drawing from the talents of birder artists. You can also find t-shirts from individual artists like Shayna Marchese of Sleeping Owl Studio.
Books
Each of the books featured share universal themes for those who love wild birds: the author starts from a vantage point, coming to birds as a source for learning, reflection, creativity, connection to others and ultimately to an impulse to protect and advocate for bird conservation. Each one different!
If you’re looking for a funny, actually page-turning birder memoir on “how I got here” (”here” being converted to birding), Julia Zarankin describes her path from bird-curious to bird-obsessed, starting shyly on public walks and graduating to bird banding to then writing about the evolution of her skill set. She sets a new bar for meaningful birder autobio that isn’t written by a celebrity or in reality a thinly-disguised gigantic humble brag by an affluent well-traveled birder without many constraints in life—This is my my opinion here, specific to MEMOIRS (!) —Most of which are written by men. Julia is neither; she’s a Russian immigrant to Canada writing mostly about birding in the Toronto urban area.
Katie Fallon and Lyanda Haupt’s in-depth narrative nonfiction books focus on obsession for a specific species. Katie investigates the cultural and natural history of the Cerulean Warbler, drawing from her own family’s history in coal mining and that industry’s impact on this migratory bird and eventually traveling to Colombia to find the warbler in its wintering habitat. Lyanda’s starting point for “Mozart’s Starling” is the female European Starling she raised by hand after rescuing it from a destroyed nest in Seattle. Who knew the European Starling had such a deep cultural history? The book’s title should give you a clue
Melissa Mayntz’s Migration and Heather Wolf’s Birding at the Bridge both have rich visual appeal to accompany the accessible, introductory prose about wild birds and their migratory patterns through time and place. Melissa’s book introduces a beginner birder to world bird migration while Heather’s book inspires “Patch Birding” with her original photography of birds in a single location, Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York.
Then there’s Rosemary Mosco’s playful illustrated takes on science and natural history—much of it bird-based—throughout her books, including Birding is My Favorite Video Game, with gross out humor and comic style images that appeal to my tween son (a non-birder).
Guided Walks and Trips
Maybe you want to give the gift of experience. Hire a women birding guide or join a trip with a woman trip leader. Roniq Bartanan and Kim Score are two examples of professional birding guides working locally in their communities—Seattle and Albuquerque, respectively—offering customized birding walks for small groups or individuals (many of the excursions being mobility accessible). Roniq even lists additional US and international women birding guides at her website to further expand your options for someone to hire.
Photographer Alyssa Bueno shares tips for bird photography through online instruction.
If you want to really go for it, consider a trip with a woman trip leader. Melissa Hafting (AKA BC Birder Girl) is leading trips with Avocet tours to Newfoundland and Alaska in 2022 and 2023. Eliana Ardila Kramer is tour leader and operations manager with her own company Birding By Bus, which has trips across the Western Hemisphere including ones that are planned for femme-identity-only clients. Melissa and Eliana are just two examples of such trip leaders, there are more out there!
Classes
Alyssa Bueno and Bridget Butler both offer online courses. Alyssa guides new bird photographers through camera set up, lighting, composition and field techniques. Bridget hosts online courses ranging from the live Birder Book Club to on-demand Slow Birding with Kids.
However you respond to this post, I hope you enjoyed meeting some new birder friends who are sharing their love for wild birds with the rest of us. Happy Winter birding to all!