Years in the past, I hiked to the highest of a mountain in Hawai‘i to see a chicken most individuals won’t ever encounter. The ‘Akiapōlā‘au, a Hawaiian honeycreeper with an excellent yellow stomach and a long-curved beak, had as soon as been extra widespread. However illness and habitat loss had pushed it greater and better into the final remaining pockets of native forest. I bear in mind the quiet of that place, damaged solely by a single warbling name within the tree overhead. The expertise was temporary, stunning, and onerous received—and it stayed with me. It formed the trail I’d observe.
As a area scientist, I realized to decelerate, to note the refined adjustments that sign one thing bigger. A migration that begins a couple of days late. A silence the place there was once music. These are clues, and birds are sometimes the primary to provide them. Every small shift carries that means, revealing the threads that join species, seasons, and the programs that maintain life on this planet.
That self-discipline—the flexibility to watch deeply and let these observations change us—is one I first realized by studying in regards to the work of Dr. Jane Goodall. Her current passing has prompted reflection internationally, and positively in my very own life. As a younger girl drawn to science, I noticed in her a uncommon instance of what it seems like to steer with each mind and empathy. She taught us that spotlight is its personal type of motion. That once we actually see what’s unfolding within the pure world, we’re referred to as to guard it.
This identical perception guides our work at Audubon. This subject is stuffed with these moments of reckoning. A seabird revealing a path lengthy hidden at sea. A puffin colony rising quiet. A hole tree revealing itself as a cornerstone of life. These tales may appear disconnected at first. However collectively, they present us that change usually begins with noticing what others have ignored and caring sufficient to behave.
Dr. Goodall as soon as mentioned, “What you do makes a distinction. And it’s a must to determine what sort of distinction you wish to make.” At Audubon, now we have made that call. Via Flight Plan, our strategic plan, we’re targeted on defending habitat, advancing local weather options, and galvanizing our group to assist us bend the chicken curve—halt and finally reverse the decline of birds throughout the Americas—and create a future the place birds and other people can thrive collectively.
As a result of when you be taught to see by means of the eyes of birds, you start to see what is feasible. And when you see it, you’re impressed to behave.
This piece initially ran within the Winter 2025 subject because the Audubon View. To obtain our print journal, change into a member by making a donation today.
