I'm Gail Strav and you're listening to She Explorers.

We're just celebrating black voices out in nature in general,

but also showing that black birders exist.

It's not just a hobby occupied by like older white men or something like that. So yeah, it's a celebration.

This is Daniel Bellany, a wild-lived biologist and member of Black AF in STEM, a community of Black professionals

and enthusiasts in STEM fields, or science technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

Daniel is also a birder, which you'll be able to tell I know very little about,

but now want to try after hearing her enthusiasm and how easy it is to get started.

In the intro, Daniel's talking about and how easy it is to get started.

In the intro, Danielle's talking about hashtag Black Birders Week.

A social media campaign turned movement

she helped co-found with Black AF in STEM

after a racist incident on May 25th in Central Park.

If you haven't heard about it, it was between a white woman named Amy Cooper and a

black birder named Christian Cooper, no relation, in which Amy called a false police report in against Christian after refusing to put her dog on a leash.

And the call wasn't just racist, it compromised Christian safety, a fact that was underlined after the killing of George Floyd by police later that day.

H. H. H. Black Birders Week lasted from May 31st to June 5th and included Q&A. H

Black Birders Week lasted from May 31st to June 5th, and included Q&As and prompts for sharing photos of birds, birding,

and spending time in nature as a black person.

It's just a joy to scroll through, and you'll hear from Danielle in our conversation

that it's the beginning of the movement.

While it's truly beautiful to see how the celebration of black birders has grown wings and

...