Contrary to popular belief

Tanis MacDonald

you are now listening to female songbirds. 
Colouration has ripple effects and a hard core.

Plumage is obvious and what are you  
to do, stay greenish-yellow most of your life? 

Even in spring, birds are individuals outside 
their species. A young male may look like 

a mature female, and senescence turns
on a bold splash: a trick of the ovary. 

Be a birder against borders, 
a herder against hoarders. 

Favour long listening. An individual 
will give you plenty to thrill to. 

Some red-winged blackbirds 
are neither red-winged nor black.  

Adjust your scope to incomplete 
understanding: expect inbetweenness. 

Comparing bill sizes will get you 
every time, like eye flecks 

in oystercatchers. Sing, sex-linked trait: 
what’s female female female? 

Try this as a pair bonding activity: 
re-enact the stick ceremony of the 

black-crowned night heron.
You will be rewarded 

with patience and allopreening, 
limited but consistent.

The Science

This poem is indebted to the work of feminist ornithologists and birders of many genders who are raising the visual profile of female birds, especially Purbita Saha and Martha Harbison, two of the co-founders of the Galbatross Project, who have been leading introductions to female bird identification for citizen scientists and birders of all stripes (and spots!) since 2020. As someone who once spent an hour trying to identify a beautiful and unusual bird by the marsh only to discover that it was a female red-winged blackbird, I was very happy to attend their very informative webinar in May 2023. This poem references a number of female bird field marks and behaviours discussed in the Galbatross webinar and are used here with permission. Please see the Galbatross Project for more information.

The Poet

Tanis MacDonald (she/they) is a Canadian poet living in southwestern Ontario. She is a feminist birder and limping trekker, and the author of Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female (2022) and five other books. She is a Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where she edits the Laurier Poetry Series and hosts the podcast Watershed Writers.