KENN KAUFMAN

Birder, writer, artist and living legend speaks about his work

Kenn Kaufman burst onto the birding scene as a teenager in the 1970s, hitch-hiking all over North America in pursuit of birds, an adventure later chronicled in his cult-classic book Kingbird Highway. After several years as a professional tour leader, taking birding groups to all seven continents, he transitioned to a career as a writer, editor, and illustrator. Most of his energy currently goes into book projects and into painting bird portraits.

He has written a dozen books, including seven titles in his own field guide series, Kaufman Field Guides, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt of Boston. His other books include Lives of North American Birds and Flights Against the Sunset. The latest is A Season on the Wind: Inside the world of spring migration, published in April 2019. Kenn is a field editor for Audubon magazine, a fellow of the American Ornithological Society, and the only person to have received the American Birding Association’s lifetime achievement award twice.

Tune in as we discuss his distinguished career and his work engaging with young people.