Rising Stars: Meet Feminist Bird Club Denver Front Range of Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Feminist Bird Club Denver Front Range

Hi Feminist Bird Club, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
The Denver & Front Range FBC is part of the larger Feminist Bird Club non-profit. Our chapter started in 2020, however, we had only one outing due to COVID-19. In 2021, we started to offer more bird outings and have grown since. We began with one leader and currently have 3 co-leaders. The Denver chapter aims to change the often competitive idea of what it means to enjoy nature to a more inclusive and accessible form.

We offer free, monthly bird outings throughout the Denver Front Range. We are a community space where birding and social justice come together. Our goal is to create a more inclusive and accessible outdoors while bringing light and support to equity and justice issues. We love to partner with local organizations that align with our values and lead bird outings together.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When we started the chapter we had much to learn about accessibility, inclusion, and access to nature. The Denver
community has taught us so much about what they need to feel comfortable in a group and what accommodations they
need to attend a bird outing. We now use more inclusive language, offer loaner equipment, add accessibility
information to sign-ups, choose locations near public transportation, and go to locations that are free to access.

We’ll continue to listen to our community’s needs through our current outlets, but we understand that it’s a learning process. We’ve received feedback from members for different birding locations and take them into consideration while planning our bird
outings. We plan to adjust our communication to include emailed newsletters and messaging apps.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We’re a birding club in the Denver Front Range. We offer free monthly outings to anyone and everyone who wants to learn about birds. No experience or equipment is necessary for our outings. We offer binoculars, field guides and help each other learn about bird identification.

The community we intend to serve needs a safe and accessible space to enjoy nature through birding. Many of the
people that join us are queer, young, and/or BIPOC. All are identities that are underrepresented in the birding or
ornithology world. We hear from many people who join us on outings that other birding clubs in the area were
unpleasant and unwelcoming. That feeling of not belonging with the local birding groups was the reason we started this
chapter.

We’ve grown in the past few years and have a big following on Instagram. We try to offer a variety of bird outings, whether it’s a leisure walk, a bird sit, or an indoor event. One of our co-leaders works at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and has offered Zoology tours at the museum. This is one of our most popular events and it’s super cool to check out the archives of the museum.

We’ll be hosting a free film screening on July 6th at Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales Library. The documentary features shorebird migration, and we’ve invited a CSU doctoral candidate to be part of our Q&A.

We also work within the greater FBC group to fundraise and raise awareness for landback programs in the
United States and organizations working on humanitarian and social efforts outside of the United States. For example, this year hosted a Birdathon and helped to raise over $1000 for Friends of the Congo.

What matters most to you? Why?
Safety, equity and inclusion matters to us. We all share a love for the outdoors and birds. It’s important that our community feels safe, welcomed and included during our events.

We have worked to ensure our community members who have been historically excluded from birding feel empowered
to grow and feel welcomed within our group. For us, this typically looks like bird outing leaders taking a step back and
encouraging our members to take the lead on answering questions, identifying birds, or telling us their birding stories.
Although we lead the outings, we do not consider ourselves experts on all things birds and are more than happy to let
others shine.

You can learn more about us here:
https://fbcdenverfr.wixsite.com/fbc-denver

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fbcdenverfr.wixsite.com/fbc-denver
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fbc.denverfr/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/fbc.denverfr?fbclid=PAAaa1i4a1fX4oIaUgidMn_VglJbKg2NSA6ELqwXbd8JLswXmbframty0O8a0

Image Credits
Andie Carillo