A bird-a-thon without birdwatching? For blind birders, it’s all about sound

From Malvern to Massachusetts, the first blind birding event showed accessibility in action.

Chester County resident Natanya Sortland suddenly lost considerable vision in 2015, following a freak accident. When she was invited on a birding date, she recalled saying, “Hello! Do you not see the white cane? But then I thought, what an opportunity.”

That happened in 2020. She has since “fallen in love with birding by ear.”

Bird-a-thons are nothing new to seasoned birdwatchers, often framed as a fundraising event. They also offer a friendly competition of who gets bragging rights for recording the most species. Participants are typically sighted, as it is commonly referred to as birdwatching.

However, blind and low vision birders had their own bird-a-thon on May 18th. The first Blind Birder Bird-a-Thon provided a space for blind birders to record and share what they heard rather than what they saw. It’s called birding by ear, and is a welcoming space for both novices and experts.

The Blind Birder bird-a-thon is the brainchild of Martha Steele of Massachusetts. For over twenty years, Steele had enjoyed birding, despite being nearly deaf for birdabyears and having declining vision due to Usher’s syndrome.  When her vision further diminished, Steele decided to get cochlear implants. That proved to be a game changer for a couple of reasons. “When I was losing the ability to see birds, I just thought that was the end of my birding. But getting the implants had nothing to do with birding. It was to address my panic of being totally deaf and blind,” Steele remembers the immediate change when she left the hospital following the procedure. “I cannot underestimate the joy of that first moment of hearing birds again.”

An Idea Is Born

Steele revamped her birding technique and honed birding by ear, which she said took years. And she is still learning. “ Birds make many different sounds. Over time and experience, you learn to distinguish the patterns, speed, pitches, and qualities of the sound. Steele added that often birders come up with catchy phrases that help. “For example, for the eastern towhee sounds like it’s saying ‘drink your tea;’ whatever way someone can remember a bird song that works for them, then great.”

Last Fall, friends told her about a blind birder who has been teaching birding by ear since 2009. “It got me to wondering how many other blind people are out there who love birds. A bird-a-thon seemed like a great way to find out and build a community.”

A successful national and local first effort

With a little help from a friend and fellow blind bird lover, who connected Steele to Birdability, the groundwork for the bird-a-thon began. Birders registered for the event and chose a consecutive or segmented two-hour time period within the 24-hour period. Then to the best of their ability, identify the species they heard. Some used apps to help with bird identification.

“We’re experiencing the world with our ears.”

– Natanya Sortland

Sortland organized a meet-up in Brightside Farm Park in Malvern as part of the bird-a-thon. She also secured a local “birdsong expert” from the Valley Forge Audubon Society to lead the group. “We’re experiencing the world with our ears,” said Sortland.

Despite Sortland’s extensive publicity efforts, only one other blind person (who travelled from Lancaster) joined her for the tour. Following the meeting, many noted that having the event on a Sunday, when paratransit, which many in the blind community rely on, is often slower and may have been a factor. Nevertheless, the small Malvern group, which also included four sighted people as guides, recorded thirty-five species.

Just over 200 species were identified, and over 200 people registered from over thirty states and Canada, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela during the first blind bird-a-thon event. Steele said it is an indication of the excitement in the blind community about birding. “They didn’t care one bit about the prizes; they just wanted to be a part of the event.”

Registrants included organized groups that guided tours through parks, as well as individuals who captured birdsongs from their front porches. They emailed their findings which Steele and her team organized into a taxonomic order, which means listing birds within their groups rather than just an alphabetical listing of all the species. Several species identified included doves, hummingbirds, flycatchers, and swallows, among others.  

More than just a Bird-a-thon

During the post-event call, many shared that the event was more than a chance to demonstrate their bird knowledge. In fact, there were several who had never birded before but said it was a fun way to get out and connect with others like themselves. “People came into our world. And it was so exciting knowing there were other blind people around the country doing the same thing,” Sortland said. “Sighted people love us. They learn a lot from how we listen.”

The bird-a-thon team is already planning next year’s event. Cat Fribley, executive director of Birdability, which provided backend and technical support, said the group is committed to the partnership. “It helps us build our programming with blind and low vision birders. What made this so powerful is the communities that were built around this,” she said.

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