Backyard Birding with Gabriel Willow “Your backyard provides a window into the natural world and there are a number of steps you can take to make it bird-friendly. Join Gabriel Willow, NYC Audubon bird expert, for a program to learn the basics of Brooklyn backyard birding.”
Gabriel Willow has been a nature enthusiast and birder since he was a small child in rural Maine, roaming the woods and fields in search of frogs and woodcocks. In his teens he traveled to Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to study birds, learning how to use mist nets and band birds. He went on to study ecology in college, his studies taking him to the mountains of Vermont and to southern Mexico, where he traveled, studying and painting the endemic avifauna off and on for five years. In 2003 he moved to New York, hoping to pursue an art school dream, but instead was drawn once again to nature and birds, becoming a teacher-naturalist with the Prospect Park Audubon Center and leading tours for Wave Hill, New York City Audubon, and others.
Gabriel is probably best known for leading NYC Audubon's summer and winter eco-cruise program. He's led the program since its inception in 2004. Working with the Prospect Park Audubon Center, Gabriel developed the eco-cruise program to blend social and natural history with wildlife sightings. He also leads migration walks in Bryant Park, in collaboration with the Bryant Park Corporation.