Blind Birder Teaches Visually-Impaired Students to Discern Species by Ear

Thought Question: What is something you’ve learned or experienced that changed the way you see or hear the world around you?

It's often said that people who are born blind or lose their sight, especially when young, can touch, taste, smell, and hear better than those who can see. Donna Posont, who is blind, helps others use their enhanced hearing to detect thousands of bird songs. 

Posont is an alumna of the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She leads a monthly program she founded at the college. It's called Birding by Ear and Beyond. It's held one Saturday each month. During the program, Posont leads visually-impaired people through 120 acres of campus forest. They listen for the sounds of many birds. These include crows, geese, chickadees, titmouses, woodpeckers, robins, and red-winged blackbirds. The latter she mimics with a spot-on “conk-la-REE” sound. 

Attendees learn to tell the sometimes subtle differences between bird species. They also learn how each fits into their habitat. 

“The world is designed for sighted people, but nature is a place where it’s okay to be blind,” Posont told The Washington Post. “You can use your other senses to learn why birds and nature are important and how it all works (as one). To me, that’s the beauty of it.”

Posont is 67. She has been blind since second grade. She was born with retinitis pigmentosa. It's a degenerative condition that affects the back wall of the eye. She graduated in environmental studies from the college. She's also a certified interpretive guide and part-time naturalist at Michigan-Dearborn. 

Jerusalem Crawley first met Posont at a summer camp for the visually impaired. He's been attending her classes for 15 years. As a child, Crawley said he had no idea there were thousands of bird species.

“I’m like, (birds are) all the same,” Crawley told Audubon Magazine. This "opened my eyes,” he said.  

Gif of a sparrow from GIPHY.