Education Action: Toronto

by Bridget Stutchbury

Why Birds?

Bird watching is the second most popular pastime in North America and at least 1 in 10 adults considers themselves a bird watcher (even it is restricted to the backyard feeder!). Birds are fun to watch and often beautiful in appearance and song. From a conservation perspective, birds are among the most conspicuous “canaries in the coal mine”, dating back to Rachel Carson’s landmark book on pesticides. From a scientific perspective, birds are relatively easy to census in a scientifically sound manner. Such bird counts have been taking place since the 1960s, and some of the best-documented and widespread losses in biodiversity in recent decades come from bird counts.

Bird declines are in the news – realistic projections indicate that 15% of the world’s birds are likely to be extinct, or near extinction, by the end of this century. I published Silence of the Songbirds in 2007, the Audubon Society published their State of the Birds Report in the summer of 2007, and the Second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas’ depressing results were released this past winter. Just a few weeks ago Birdlife International released their State of the World’s Birds report. The Globe & Mail reported on this story (“Black Clouds on the Horizon for Birds of the World, 23 Sept 2008) and CBC Radio recently did an in-depth story on bird biodiversity loss on a special The Current program hosted by David Suzuki.

Though wild caribou and polar bears are species at risk that most Toronto residents will never see for themselves, wild birds pour into cities during migration. Boreal forest birds that breed hundreds or thousands of kilometers to the north make Toronto their home, even if only for a day or two. Birds provide a simple and meaningful direct connection to biodiversity loss, ecosystem services and climate change.

Bird Sleuth: a Curriculum for Grades 4-8

Toronto is one of the biggest cities in North America and is proud to call itself bird-friendly. It was one of the first cities to turn off lights during migration, advocates new building designs to avoid bird-window collisions and is creating Bird Flyways for safe migration through the city. Toronto is home to York University’s new program called “Birds in the City”.

I co-founded this environmental education program to combine my scientific expertise with educators and use birds to teach children the joys and importance of the natural world. The working group at York University includes professors and graduate students from the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Environmental Studies and Faculty of Science and Engineering.

When I first discovered the Bird Sleuth curriculum developed recently by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology it seemed too good to be true: a program to get city kids outdoors and doing real science with real birds! For the past year, York University has been working with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology to promote and support the Bird Sleuth curriculum in the Greater Toronto Area.

Bird Sleuth is an inquiry-based curriculum that builds excitement about science and the outdoors as it engages students in the scientific process. Students learn to identify and see birds and in their own community. They learn how to collect data about their local birds and report their data to eBird, a continent-wide citizen science project run by Cornell. Students and teachers can then pose, and answer, questions about birds using e-Bird data collected by citizen scientists across North America.

In 2008, Birds in the City organized workshops and training seminars for teachers at Toronto schools as well as teachers-in-training at York’s Faculty of Education. Funding from private foundations and individuals, along with York University funding, allowed us to offer BirdSleuth curriculum kits at a discount and to donate field guides to several inner city schools. Several local naturalist clubs have supported our Bird Sleuth program and Wild Birds Unlimited stores in Toronto are advertising our program in their newsletter and provide discounts for schools using BirdSleuth.

One of my graduate students designed a web site (http://birdsrus.yorku.ca) to provide local coordination and support to teachers. This web site allows teachers and schools to request workshops, encourages volunteer bird watchers to register to visit schools in their community, and provides links to guide teachers and their students in taking action to help their local environment. The web site also hosts an electronic “I Wonder Board” where teachers and students can post questions or photos and have them answered by a local bird expert.

The Role of Scientists in Environmental Education

The broader issue to consider is the role that professional scientists should play in public outreach and environmental education. A few years ago I heard Paul Ehrlich speak at the Smithsonian Institution, advocating a rule of thumb that we should all devote at least 10% of our time to public outreach….and then he asked for a show of hands as to who was already doing this. You can guess the results!

How can NGOs and school boards encourage greater engagement by scientists, and in turn how can Universities better recognize and support the efforts of professors and graduate students who participate?

Bridget Stutchbury was born in Montreal and raised in Toronto. She now lives in Woodbridge, Ontario. She completed her master’s of science at Queen’s University and her Ph.D. at Yale, was a fellow and research associate at the Smithsonian Institute and is now professor of biology at York University, where she is Canada Research Chair in Ecology. Recognized as an international birding expert, she is affiliated with more than a dozen organizations seeking to preserve bird habitats, including the World Wildlife Fund. She was selected by the Toronto Star as one of the “People to Watch in 2005” after her groundbreaking research into the sexual antics of birds made headlines around the world. Her long-term research examines the behavioural ecology and conservation of temperate and tropical birds. Bridget Stutchbury can be reached online through the Birds in the City website (http://birdsrus.yorku.ca)