Inclusion and Diversity Statement

The Ray Brown’s Talkin’ Birds team is committed to helping make bird watching safe, welcoming, and accessible for all. Our mission is to welcome and encourage appreciation of our natural world while promoting its preservation and protection. We believe that birding is for everybody, and that the birds we love, and the habitats they rely on, benefit most when more people are engaged in protecting them. We believe that anyone who enjoys looking at birds is a ‘birdwatcher.’ We do not discriminate because of skill level, length of time identifying as a birdwatcher, age, gender, skin color, size, sexual orientation, disability, religion, socioeconomic status, or national or ethnic origin.

We would like to acknowledge that Ray Brown's Talkin' Birds is broadcast live from Marshfield, Massachusetts. This is the land of the Massa-adchu-es-et people and the Wôpanâak Nation, whose lives and livelihoods were devastated by the arrival of European colonizers, yet they are still here. We acknowledge and pay respects to their elders past, present and future.

 To accomplish our mission, we commit to the following actions:

  • We will seek out diverse guests in order to ensure that they represent all kinds of birders, and to ensure that our listeners can be exposed to birders who may not look or sound like them. 

  • In order to be transparent, we will include photos of our team on our website and share photos of our guests on social media. This will allow listeners to recognize characteristics of themselves in our guests, because representation matters.

  • We will create a page on our website to help individuals and groups make birding more welcoming and inclusive for all, and sharing resources for birders who may often be under-represented. (Being developed, as of August 2020.)

  • We will use our platform and our voice to speak out against discrimination of any kind in the birding community, and condemn racism, homophobia, ableism, sizeism, sexism, and ageism.

  • We will support organizations that work to encourage and include birders of all kinds via guest interviews, social media posts, and links to their work on our website. 

  • We will support and promote birding-related events on our show and our social media platforms, especially when these events cater specifically to female birders, birders with disabilities, birders who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or people of color, and birders who identify as LGBTQIA+. 

  • We will welcome and encourage interaction and participation of birders of all kinds in our weekly Mystery Bird Contest, through our social media platforms, and in our Talkin’ Birds Flock Facebook group.

  • We will include our pronouns in our email signatures.

  • We will advocate whenever possible for inclusive practices in any bird-related event or organization with which we are involved.

  • We will continue to learn about our own internal biases that may impact our abilities to help make birding welcoming and inclusive for all.