Photo: Common Loon (Maang), Benjamin Olson/Audubon Photography Awards
Jo Doumbia, NVBA Director and Chair, Diversity and Inclusion
Each November, during Native American Heritage Month, we are reminded that our connection with nature did not begin with field guides or binoculars. Long before modern birding, native peoples across North America watched, listened, and learned from the birds that shared their homelands. For them, birds were not merely part of the scenery: they were kin, teachers and messengers between worlds.
Among the Cherokee, the vulture is said to have shaped the mountains with its mighty wings. To the Lakota, the eagle soars higher than any other creature, carrying prayers and hopes to the Creator. The Anishinaabe call the Common Loon Maang, a spirit guide whose haunting call drifts across northern lakes, linking the seen and unseen worlds. Each of these stories reflects a deep and enduring respect for birds as sacred beings who reveal the patterns of life itself.
For native communities, birds also provided practical guidance. Their migrations marked the rhythm of the seasons, signaling when to plant, harvest, or prepare for winter. Bird calls forecasted weather changes, and nesting behaviors told when the rivers would rise. What we now call traditional ecological knowledge arose from generations of careful observation and reciprocity, a way of learning that listens as much as it teaches.
That same wisdom still speaks to us today. As birders, we, too, are listeners. Every time we pause to identify a song in the trees or note the first flash of migration overhead, we join a continuum of watchfulness that reaches back millennia. But birding can also be an act of gratitude. Planting native trees and flowers, protecting nesting sites and learning the indigenous names of local birds are small yet powerful ways to honor the birds and the peoples who have long cared for this land.
Across the continent, indigenous birders and conservation leaders continue that legacy. In Manitoba, the Indigenous Birding Club brings together students, elders and community members to blend traditional teachings with modern science. In the American Southwest, tribal conservation programs restore wetlands vital to migratory birds. These efforts remind us that caring for birds is inseparable from caring for community, language and place.
When we listen carefully to the song of a wren or the cry of a hawk circling above, we hear more than sound: we hear memory. We hear the same voices that guided those who walked this land long before us. Birds connect us, across cultures, across generations and across the thin space between earth and sky.
This November, as we celebrate Native American Heritage Month, may we carry forward that sense of reverence. To watch a bird is to practice attention. To protect a bird is to practice respect. And to listen to a bird is to remember: every feather carries a story, and every story is a path back to balance.