For The Birds

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Environmental groups, meanwhile, are busily trying to stir up bird watchers on the Internet. A link on the National Audubon Society's website www.audubon.org) takes visitors to protectthearctic.com, which helps people tell their representatives in Congress, by e-mail, fax or letter, that they don't want oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Other parts of the new Bush energy plan come under attack at the Audubon site as well. Says Audubon president John Flicker: "The energy policy encourages the blowing off of mountaintops in West Virginia, destroying endangered cerulean warbler habitat for a small amount of coal."

The American Bird Conservancy, with a policy council composed of 85 organizations, has launched a campaign to protect birds from 50 pesticides still on the market. Its website is urging birders to write the Environmental Protection Agency and press the agency to ban fenthion, a particularly dangerous chemical used to kill mosquitoes in Florida.

Business is pitching in too. Wild Birds Unlimited, a chain that sells birdseed, feeders, binoculars and other birding gear, has joined with the National Wildlife Federation to sponsor a Habitat Stewards program that teaches people how to turn their backyards into wildlife refuges. N.W.F. president Mark Van Putten notes that birders are one of the biggest groups in his membership. "They are only beginning to be mobilized," he says. "They could be a real force."

The next generation of birders could be an even stronger one. "Everywhere I go," says Sibley, "I meet or hear about some eight-year-old who's obsessed with birds." And eight-year-old environmentalists, as many a parent can attest, are natural activists, ready to do whatever it takes to save the planet.

One of the wide-eyed followers on Sibley's Central Park jaunt was Miranda Holman, 11, who has been birding since she was eight. When she shyly approached Sibley for an autograph, he asked her to name her favorite bird. "The scarlet tanager," she quickly replied, whereupon the artist sketched a Sibley original of the forest dweller on her notepad. Miranda has seen only one scarlet tanager in her life, but if bird watchers can get their conservation act together, she may see many more.