NYT: How Birders Who Are Blind Use Birdsong to Map the World Around Them

[Jim Feeley]

A nice story:

 

‘Birds Are My Eyesight’

For some blind birders, avian soundscapes are a way to map the world around them. Increasing noise pollution is imperiling that navigation.

 

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On an average morning, Susan Glass can sit on the patio at her condominium complex in Saratoga, Calif., and identify as many as 15 different bird species by ear: a steller’s jay, an acorn woodpecker, an oak titmouse.

 

For her, birding is more than a hobby. “Birds are my eyesight,” said Ms. Glass, a poet and a professor of English at West Valley Community College who has been blind since birth. “When I check into a hotel in Pittsburgh, I might remember the rock dove and the house finch in the parking lot, rather than the architecture.”

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Whole article, along with pictures and audio samples here:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/03/style/birding-blind-low-vision.html

 

(I think you can access a few New York Times articles per month without paying.)