“As soon as I could hold my head up as a baby, my dad put me in a backpack carrier and took me birding. Some of my earliest written words were bird lists and banding codes. I started getting more serious about birding when I was 8. During the quiet seasons in New England, I spent a long time reading David Allen Sibley’s guides and memorized common and scientific names for most North American birds. I started drawing birds every day in January 2021, and by the summer I was able to draw birds from memory rather than reference photos. This motivates me to do even more birding because I prefer to draw birds I’ve seen in the field.

I entered the ABA Young Birder of the Year mentoring program to meet other young birders and challenge myself to share my work—I had never taken any of my drawings out of my sketchbooks before! Even though I participate in the Massachusetts Young Birders Club (MYBC), I haven’t met many people my age who are very serious about birding who live near me. It’s important to have more birders and more young people who want to protect birds.”

Campaign for Shade-grown Coffee: Protecting Birds & their Habitat.

“On Thin Ice” This male Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) was walking across the ice at Rosemary Brook just south of a beaver lodge at one of our regular birding spots.