Jason Ward (naturalist)

Jason Ward is an American naturalist, birder, and activist.[1] He is the host of the 2019 television documentary series Birds of North America. He is the founder and CEO of "The BlackAFinSTEM Collective".

Jason Ward
Born
Bronx, New York
NationalityAmerican
TelevisionBirds of North America (TV series)

Early life
Ward with an Eastern Screech-Owl

Ward was born and raised in Bronx, New York.[2][3] He has five siblings.[4] He described seeing a peregrine falcon eating a pigeon when he was 14,[2] which was one of the events that raised his interest in birds.[2][4][5] He later moved to Atlanta and worked in a mortgage job.[6] There he learned about the Atlanta Audubon Society, and starting joining their bird walks.[2][6] Eight months later he started leading these bird walks.[6] He also worked at Zoo Atlanta as an education instructor.[7] He is now a community relations and outreach coordinator for the National Audubon Society.[2][8]

Outreach work

Ward started a bird identification game on Twitter called #TrickyBirdID.[9] He tweets out pictures of birds and participants have to guess what species it is. After the reveal he explains how to identify the bird.[9]

Through this Twitter game he caught the attention of Anna Holmes, who worked as an editorial director for Topic.com.[2] This led to the series Birds of North America, produced by Topic, of which the first episode was released on March 17, 2019.[10] The show regularly features Ward's brother, Jeffrey, who is also a birder.[4] The documentary series aims to reach people who might not normally engage in conservation efforts and learn about natural history—in particular young people, people of color, and people who live in cities.[2][11] Ward also aims to share birding as a therapeutic activity for people living in cities.[6]

In 2020 Ward was included in the Grist 50, as one of the "emerging leaders" to save the planet.[12]

In May 2020, Ward and other naturalists and science communicators founded the BlackAFinSTEM collective[13] and participated in Black Birders Week— a series of online events to celebrate black scientists, scholars, and naturalists.[14]

Awards
  • 2019 – The Alongside Wildlife Foundation Outreach Award[8]
  • 2020 – Listed as one of Grist 50[12]

References
  1. "Jason Ward". National Audubon Society. October 6, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  2. Becker, Rachel (April 3, 2019). "Birding gets new life in this YouTube nature series". The Verge. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  3. Jason Ward goes birding in Central Park | The Kid Should See This, April 1, 2019, retrieved August 10, 2019
  4. Russell, Anna (March 25, 2019). "Birding Brothers of the Bronx". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  5. Buckley, Cara (June 28, 2019). "A Bird Show Spots a Rival, and Bird-Watchers of Color Are Angry". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  6. Sloat, Sarah. "Birder Jason Ward Explains Why Birding Is So Therapeutic for City-Dwellers". Inverse. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  7. "From Birding in the Bronx to Birding on Your Screens, It's Been a Journey". Audubon. March 21, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  8. Alongside Wildlife (March 15, 2019). "Congratulations to Jason Ward – The First Winner of The Alongside..." Living Alongside Wildlife. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  9. Becker, Rachel (March 24, 2019). "Test your animal knowledge with these challenges on Twitter". The Verge. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  10. Birds of North America: Warblers in Central Park, retrieved August 10, 2019
  11. Carroll, Rebecca (March 27, 2019). "REBEL: Jason Ward Is Changing the Face of Birding". WNYC. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  12. "Grist 50: 2020: Celebrating 5 Years of Fixers". Grist. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  13. Qaiser, Farah. "#BlackBirdersWeek highlights Black nature enthusiasts and scientists". Massive Science. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  14. Willingham, AJ. "These Black nature lovers are busting stereotypes, one cool bird at a time". CNN. Retrieved June 4, 2020.


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