Why female birds, you ask? I too love a bright male, but "an unconscious bias against female birds is widespread in birding" @KennKaufman, leading to knowledge & conservation gaps.

Thread/please RT. #FemaleBirdDay https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♀️" title="Female sign" aria-label="Emoji: Female sign">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🐦" title="Bird" aria-label="Emoji: Bird"> https://www.audubon.org/news/i-became-better-birder-when-i-stopped-focusing-males">https://www.audubon.org/news/i-be...

In Dr. Ruth Bennett& #39;s study of conservation plans for 66 landbird species, females use different resources https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌳" title="Deciduous tree" aria-label="Emoji: Deciduous tree">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⛰️" title="Mountain" aria-label="Emoji: Mountain"> than males in the nonbreeding season in 33% of species. Yet only 8% of conservation plans took that into account. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320719306986?via%3Dihub">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a...

They found female Golden-winged Warblers (a species in steep decline) use lower elevation forests https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌳" title="Deciduous tree" aria-label="Emoji: Deciduous tree"> than maleshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⛰️" title="Mountain" aria-label="Emoji: Mountain">, and have lost twice as much habitat than males from 2000-2016 due to logging https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🪓" title="Axe" aria-label="Emoji: Axe">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🪵" title="Wood" aria-label="Emoji: Wood">. https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2020/when-female-birds-are-overlooked-conservation">https://www.audubon.org/magazine/...

Museum collections also feature fewer males than females, offering scientists less opportunity to study female birds. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👩‍🔬" title="Woman scientist" aria-label="Emoji: Woman scientist">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👨‍🔬" title="Man scientist" aria-label="Emoji: Man scientist">
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.2025">https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.10...

When I learned to count birds by ear, I was told male songbirds are the ones that sing https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎶" title="Multiple musical notes" aria-label="Emoji: Multiple musical notes">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎼" title="Musical score" aria-label="Emoji: Musical score">. An old assumption not rooted in sexism, but a lack of information. Dr. @LaurynBenedict and @femalebirdsong found at least 144 songbird (passerine) species sing: https://academic.oup.com/view-large/126000253">https://academic.oup.com/view-larg...

In fact, Dr. Karan Odom, creator of http://femalebirdsong.org/ ,">https://femalebirdsong.org/">... found that 64% of female birds that we have data for singhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♀️" title="Female sign" aria-label="Emoji: Female sign">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎶" title="Multiple musical notes" aria-label="Emoji: Multiple musical notes">! https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/135/2/314/5148802">https://academic.oup.com/auk/artic...

Some female birds have lost their song in North America & Europe; female song is more prevalent in the tropics and Australia. Find out more in this engaging podcast https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎧" title="Headphone" aria-label="Emoji: Headphone">with @LaurynBenedict and @N8Swick: https://blog.aba.org/2019/10/american-birding-podcast-the-secrets-of-female-bird-song-with-lauryn-benedict.html">https://blog.aba.org/2019/10/a...

What can you do?

1. Be mindful of what we miss if we overlook female birds.
2. Follow these pioneer ornithologists, @femalebirdsong @LaurynBenedict @keomland, Ruth Bennett, Karan Odom, and many more (please tag yourselves!)https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🐦" title="Bird" aria-label="Emoji: Bird">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🐤" title="Baby chick" aria-label="Emoji: Baby chick">

3. Challenge yourselves this long weekend to identify female birds https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♀️" title="Female sign" aria-label="Emoji: Female sign">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🐦" title="Bird" aria-label="Emoji: Bird">with the Galbatrosses, @marthaharbison @hahabita @4LETTERBIRD @BrookeLBateman and I. It& #39;s hard, it& #39;s not about listing and competing, but learning the traits that distinguish sexes. http://femalebirdday.wordpress.com/ ">https://femalebirdday.wordpress.com/">...

(https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👆" title="Up pointing backhand index" aria-label="Emoji: Up pointing backhand index">be sure to follow all social distancing guidelines)

4. Share your ID tips and techniques herehttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📈" title="Chart with upwards trend" aria-label="Emoji: Chart with upwards trend">: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUszpeiAduvwLqH3dNgfCehzTRfEKoV9JETBIAF-hXkTR52w/viewform
5.">https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e... Spread the word https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😀" title="Grinning face" aria-label="Emoji: Grinning face"> #FemaleBirdDay #ISawABird