CBH Talk | Birding New York: Migration, Community, and Conservation

Each spring, New York City becomes a vital stopover for millions of migrating birds, transforming parks, shorelines, and even city streets into sites of discovery. In this special program inspired by the book Bird City: Adventures in New York’s Urban Wilds, writer and birder Ryan Goldberg brings together a group of passionate observers, conservationists, and storytellers for a birds’ eye view of our concrete city.

Goldberg is joined by Indigo Goodson-Fields, a Brooklyn-based writer and poet whose forthcoming anthology Essential Birding centers the voices and experiences of Black birders across the United States; Dennis Hrehowsik, president of the Brooklyn Bird Club and a beloved local bird walk leader known for his commitment to accessibility and community; and Chris Allieri, founder and executive director of the NYC Plover Project, whose work to protect endangered shorebirds has helped reshape conservation efforts along the city’s coastlines.

Together, they will consider birding as both practice and perspective, in the ways that it connects people to place, to each other, and to the natural world embedded within the city. From neighborhood bird walks to grassroots conservation, this conversation invites audiences to see New York anew during the height of spring migration, and to reflect on what it means to pay attention to the winged life around us.