Suzy Buttress has been hosting the Casual Birder podcast for nearly nine years, built entirely around the idea that birding should be enjoyable, accessible, and welcoming to everyone.

In this episode, Chris sits down with a fellow podcaster to hear how a childhood dream of being Snow White with birds on her hand turned into a 1,085-species world list, a husband she's converted into a bigger birder than herself, and a gentle but very real competition over who gets to 191 first.

From a wooden spoon worm-feeding contraption to paradise riflebirds in Australia to a missed crane on Big Day that still stings, this is a conversation about finding your people, birding at your own pace, and why the casual approach might be the best one of all.

Episode Takeaways:

• Nine years of Casual Birder — How Suzy built a solo podcast from scratch, doing everything herself, and why the community it created changed her life more than she ever expected.
• The monster she created — Suzy started dragging her photographer husband along on birding trips. Now he's on 191 for the year and she's on 182. She calls it a monster of her own making.
• Getting serious about listing — How a women's birding challenge introduced Suzy to eBird, and why she won't count a bird unless she could identify it herself.
• The wooden spoon invention — Suzy's homemade worm-feeding contraption that got a robin coming in for slow-mo photography. Patented, apparently.
• Paradise riflebirds in Australia — The trip where live mealworms in the hand were suddenly worth the wriggle, thanks to a magpie-sized bird of paradise landing on her palm.
• The Big Day breakdown — How Suzy and her husband John approach the Global Big Day each year, why filming it adds chaos, and the crane she heard but couldn't bring herself to count.

Episode Timestamps:

• 03:00 — Nine years, 148 episodes, and doing everything solo
• 05:00 — How the podcast opened up Suzy's world and connected her to people globally
• 06:00 — Where the love of birds began
• 11:00 — Paradise riflebirds in Australia and the one time wriggly worms were worth it
• 13:00 — When birding got serious: binoculars at 15, a photographer husband, and the podcast
• 17:00 — Getting into listing, eBird, and an honesty rule that keeps the count clean
• 19:00 — 1,085 species worldwide and why it could be more if she wasn't so strict
• 21:00 — The black tern she missed while editing podcast episodes
• 25:00 — Binoculars, scopes, cameras, and who carries what
• 27:00 — Global Big Day: the logistics, the nightjar finish, and 79 vs 84
• 33:00 — 30 Days Wild, red kites in a thunderstorm, and mindful birding
• 39:00 — Target lifer: the crested eagle in Panama

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• The Casual Birder Podcast
• Hannah and Erik Go Birding Podcast
• Global Big Day