I apologize if I ruffled your feathers, I was responding to the previous poster's comments, who was there and said people were following it around and that she left feeling disheartened. Additionally, if there is an entire section on eBird regarding people's behavior around this bird, it seems there'd be good reason for it. I hope I'm wrong.
Amy Taracido
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From: Bird discussion list for Pennsylvania <PABIRDS...> on behalf of Geoff Malosh <pomarine...>
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2026 1:34 PM
To: <PABIRDS...> <PABIRDS...>
Subject: Re: [PABIRDS] Willow Ptarmigan ethics - Erie County
I know the people well who have now been photographed and posted in an eBird checklist related to this. Since they have been posted and criticized publicly, I think it's reasonable for me to post publicly about them as well. They're not on this listserv. They're actually very nice people, if you can believe it! They're relatively new to our thing and not dialed into the birding community yet at all. The kid is very enthusiastic about birding, and quite highly skilled already, and his dad, while not in the least interested in birds himself, has been very encouraging of his son's new interest -- including doing things like driving several hours so his son can see some weird chicken on a beach.
We've all had birds walk or fly up to us before, like this bird did to this kid. Things like ruffed grouse, shorebirds, vagrant flycatchers, warblers at Magee Marsh, a robin on the porch, maybe even a ptarmigan on the Arctic tundra. Birds do unexpected and counterintuitive things sometimes. Should he and everyone else present have backed off? I wasn't there, but, okay, yes, he should have. Should he have not been anywhere close in the first place, so that the bird could not walk up to him if it tried? I guess all the armchair QBs can reasonably argue that too. Knowing him and his father, I am certain he would have backed off if he was approached by concerned birders in a reasonable manner. And to repeat, the bird literally walked up to this kid, on its own. Who here wouldn't actually take a picture or twenty with a big smile on your face, if it was you?
Not everything is black and white, in other words. The flip side of all this is the birding community's penchant for always assuming the worst in people anytime a story like this comes up. Assuming, as here, that this kid (and I suppose most everyone else present?) was just being selfish and unthinking. I note that all responses to the original post here also immediately assumed the worst. Again, I wasn't there, but if I were to speculate about what went on (and from what I gathered from the parents' side of the story), I'd suggest that it was probably just... one of those things. Everyone there was likely being very respectful of the bird, waiting patiently for it to appear, at an appropriate distance initially, and the bird on its own closed the distance to the crowd once it finally walked out. Myself, I wouldn't immediately assume malicious or selfish intent from anyone there, especially given this particular situation and this particular species. Certainly enough birds have surprised me like that, over the years. Should everyone immediately back off in that situation? You can argue yes they should, but if they don't, and instead get wrapped up in enjoying an amazing moment with everyone else, that doesn't make any of them unethical. It’s just one of those things. From what I heard, nobody chased the bird out of the phrags to get a photo, or chased it a hundred yards down the beach or whatever, least of all this kid. If there is evidence that someone did do that, then yes we should all be concerned.
He's a young birder new to this stuff and was pretty thrilled to have had a tame bird that should be 4000 miles away in Alaska unexpectedly walk right up to him, and he's understandably distraught seeing his face posted publicly and being scolded this way with no way to respond. The place for commentary and correction, if it was even necessary at all, was in the field. I talked to his parents, and their story is that none of the several people also there said anything to him, and nobody said anything to his dad either, and lots of people had the chance but they were too busy enjoying the scene themselves. Now the net effect of all of this may well be to turn off a promising and skilled young birder from taking his new hobby any further. That's probably a worse outcome than some people taking close pictures of some lost bird, all things considered, and frankly I'm not convinced he or anyone else there did anything "wrong" in the first place.
