Early one morning last May, Henry Griffin was leading a group of bird enthusiasts through an alley near his Oak Park home and heard a song that made him stop. It was from a Connecticut warbler, a notoriously shy bird with a reputation for being hard to find.
Excited about seeing what he calls a “very, very uncommon bird,” Henry photographed the warbler and took a video to share with fellow birders, certain that someone who wasn’t with him that morning would doubt his word.
Henry, who’ll turn 15 next month, has already birded in nine countries besides the U.S. and says he has 751 species on his “world life list” — the tally of species he’s seen. But his passion for birding started in his backyard, and he’s doing his best to spread the word that urban-area birding consists of more than spotting sparrows and cardinals.
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Since last year, Henry has been conducting bird walks for free during the spring and fall through his Oak Park neighborhood, making others aware of such species as the elusive Connecticut warbler.
“You don’t have to go far to see wonderful birds. There’s so much to see right here,” he told 15 followers on a recent Sunday morning walk.
Within a few blocks, he pointed out cardinals, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, a ruby-crowned kinglet and at least 10 more.
He started advertising his guided Oak Park Bird Walks last March as a community service project for his Catholic confirmation. But he enjoyed them so much that even with a busy schedule of homework and rehearsals and performances with musical groups he’s involved with, he wanted to keep them up.
Their purpose, he says, is to help foster a strong birding community in Oak Park. He hopes to build one as strong as the Evanston North Shore Bird Club, an active group that was founded in 1919. He wants “to build an appreciation for birds and nature in urban areas,” he said, and alert people to the need for native landscape.
And he likes meeting other birders.
His walks begin in his front yard, where he greets visitors by name and with a handshake. He leads them through his backyard and then for 14 blocks through quiet Oak Park alleys, away from traffic and close to where giant oaks and elms support the bird population that explodes with colorful migrants heading north for the summer or south for winter. Spring birding peaks around mid-May.
Henry chronicles details from each walk in a blog he writes. He has scheduled six more walks on Sunday and Wednesday mornings during May and plans to host more in the fall.
Ed McDevitt, executive director of Public Art Chicago, first learned of Henry’s walks through the Illinois Birders Exchanging Thoughts website, where birders share sightings. The first time McDevitt arrived at Henry’s home, he saw four people standing outside — two men, a woman and a boy. McDevitt remembers that he approached the four, assuming one of the men was Henry, but the boy stuck out his hand and greeted him by name.
“Henry quickly proved himself to be a most knowledgeable birder and an excellent guide on a walk,” McDevitt said in an email. “He has a remarkably acute and accurate eye for birds in flight, even at a substantial distance and without visual assistance. He is a friendly, outgoing, very giving young man who has it in his soul to share what he knows and can do — most unusual not only in a very young person, but in anyone.”
Henry’s passion for birding began in February 2012 when a large bird flew into his backyard and he couldn’t identify it. His dad, David Griffin, got him the I-Bird Pro app, and Henry learned the bird was a Cooper’s hawk.
The raptor quickly moved on, but Henry was hooked.
“I became almost fanatical about learning bird songs,” he said to the nod of his mother, Susan Warner, who added: “Some kids spend their free time on games and videos. My son is constantly researching birds.”
But then it may only be natural that he birds by ear, first identifying them by the music they make and then by sight. The child of accomplished musicians, he began singing as a baby, his mother said. She plays clarinet for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and his father plays French horn for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Henry plays piano; sings in Voice of Chicago, the advanced group of the Chicago Children’s Choir; and plays classical trumpet, performing with the Wind Symphony at Oak Park and River Forest High School, where he attends school in the morning. He is home-schooled in the afternoon. He hopes for a career in opera.
No one else in his immediate family is a birder, but he and his father enjoying hiking together, and most importantly, all of them are patient, he says, smiling. They understand that his intense hobby does not involve a time clock.
On family vacations that have taken them around the world, his parents “divide and conquer,” his mom said. One entertains his 7-year-old sister, Pearl, while the other gets Henry to his birding spots.
Locally, he travels as independently as he can by bus, train and carpool to go birding. And in July he will go to Costa Rica with a school group. He is already immersed in the schoolwork required on the trip so he can free up time to go birding and perhaps increase his life list to more than 1,000 species, he said.
“I like finding the new birds the best,” Henry said. “It’s fun to look at the bird and determine the species. But sometimes I also just like the feeling of being with the birds. I love listening to the plethora of bird songs.”
He prefers to use his camera instead of his binoculars on walks, eliminating “stuff” around his neck. He reports his sightings on the Illinois Birders Exchanging Thoughts website and has made birding friends through his membership in the Illinois Young Birders Club.
“For a kid his age, (his bird list) is fantastic,” said Matthew Cvetas, the adult coordinator of the group, which includes about 50 active members, most in the Chicago area. “One of the best things about this hobby is that you can do it wherever you are, and his family has traveled the world.
“There’s no question Henry’s an extremely sharp kid,” Cvetas said. “It’s very impressive that he leads these walks open to the public. I think one of the lessons he teaches is that there are birds all around us. You don’t have to be in a remote setting. “
Cvetas said 325 to 350 species can be seen every year in Illinois.
Henry’s neighbors, Celeste and Jim Duignan, followed him on a recent walk, as amazed by their young neighbor’s leadership skills as they were with the hermit thrush and the brown creeper he pointed out.
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“We follow his blog,” Celeste Duignan said. “We enjoy hearing him play his trumpet in the summer when the windows are open. Sometimes he plays taps in the evening. It’s wonderful what he knows about birds. But what I really enjoy seeing is the path he’s taken. It’s Henry’s own migration that is most amazing.”
For information on Henry Griffin’s bird walks go to worldbirding.travellerspoint.com. Email him at [email protected].
Joan Cary is a freelance reporter.