Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig (born 2002), also known as Birdgirl, is a British-Bangladeshi ornithologist, environmental activist, and author. She became known for her birdwatching achievements from a young age, including becoming the youngest person to see half of the world's bird species and holding a Guinness World Record for birding on all seven continents.

Early life and education

Craig was born in Bristol to English father Chris, an engineer, and British mother of Banladeshi descent, Helena Ahmed, a lawyer, and grew up in Compton Martin, Somerset. She attended Chew Valley School.

Birding

Her birdwatching was cultivated in childhood after her parents took family trips throughout her youth. She went on her first birdwatching trip at just nine days old. In 2012, when Craig was 10, her parents decided to take her out of school for six months and homeschool her themselves, to take her on an extensive trip. The family traveled for six weeks in Colombia, followed by six weeks in Bolivia, and concluded with nine weeks in Peru, returning home for two weeks between each trip to allow her to reconnect with friends. In 2009, at the age of seven, she undertook a "big year," aiming to observe the maximum number of bird species within a specific geographical area over a calendar year. She successfully identified 325 bird species in the UK, making her the youngest individual worldwide to accomplish this challenge.

Craig has followed her father's hobby, birdwatching, since childhood. Craig appeared on the 2010 BBC Four documentary "Twitchers: A Very British Obsession." Afterwards she appeared on ''Springwatch'', ''Countryfile'', and ''The One Show''. Her first newspaper column "Birding Tales" was published in the ''Chew Valley Gazette'' when she was 12.

At age 11, she started her blog ''Birdgirl'' to share her passion for birds. The following year, she campaigned to raise $35,000 for a Bangladeshi charity to deal with the 2014 Sundarbans oil spill.

In 2015, after reaching Brown Bluff on the Antarctic Peninsula, Craig achieved a Guinness World Record for being the youngest female to birdwatch on all continents. She is dedicated to observing every bird species in their natural habitats and, by age 17, had recorded sightings of 5,000 species, approximately half of all known species, earning recognition as the youngest individual to reach this milestone. She achieved her 5,000th sighting, a rock bunting, at Castle of Loarre in northern Spain. By 2019, her global birding expeditions had taken her to 38 countries across all seven continents, including Australia, Egypt, and multiple trips to the Amazon.

In June 2018, Craig obtained her C-permit from the British Trust for Ornithology, allowing her to independently record birds without parental supervision. She is a bird ringer.

Activism

Craig is an advocate for increased equality in naturalism and environmentalism and has campaigned to improve diversity in conservation work. Reflecting on her childhood experiences with birdwatching, Craig recalls the predominantly white and male demographic of the community. Initially feeling comfortable due to her long-standing involvement, around the age of 13 or 14, she began to perceive the lack of diversity within the birdwatching community as unusual. People questioned her interest in the hobby, prompting her to ponder why certain demographics were more prevalent in such pursuits. This realization sparked her curiosity about inclusivity and diversity in nature-related activities prompting her to advocate for inclusivity in outdoor activities.

Craig created her first nature conference, attended by naturalists including Bill Oddie, at the age of 13. Her older sister's reduced birding time after having a baby spurred Craig to seek out other young naturalists. Discovering the American Birding Association's teen summer camps online, her parents proposed organizing similar camps herself. Identifying a lack of diversity in birding communities, particularly among British Bangladeshi backgrounds, she founded Black2Nature in 2015 at 14 to run nature camps for minority ethnic children. The initiative addresses the underrepresentation of these communities in environmental fields by offering urban youth opportunities to explore and engage with nature, aiming to prompt change and promote equity within the environmental sector.

Craig was a "Bristol 2015 Ambassador" during the city's year as European Green Capital. In 2018, she contributed to Chris Packham's A People’s Manifesto for Wildlife and was enlisted as the manifesto’s "minister of diversity". Craig campaigned with Greta Thunberg at the Youth Strike 4 Climate event in Bristol in February 2020. She has organized conferences featuring celebrity nature enthusiasts such as Bill Oddie, Chris Packham, and RSPB chief executive Beccy Speight.

In September 2020, Craig staged the most northerly climate strike, by protesting on an Arctic ice floe north of Svalbard, at 82.2° N, highlighting the urgency of climate action ahead of the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity.

In August 2022, she was announced as an Oxfam Ambassador and spoke on their stage at Glastonbury Festival. Craig is also an ambassador for Greenpeace and The Wildlife Trusts.

Awards and recognitions

In 2018, Craig won the National Biodiversity Network's Gilbert White Youth Award for recording terrestrial and freshwater wildlife.

In February 2020, Craig received an honorary doctorate in science (DSc hc) from the University of Bristol.

In June 2023, Craig was awarded ''The Muslim News'''s Malcolm X Young Person’s Award for Excellence. That year, she was also selected as a National Geographic Society Young Explorer.

Craig's first book, ''We Have a Dream,'' was nominated for Discover Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2022. In March 2023, she was longlisted for the 2023 Jhalak Prize for her memoir, ''Birdgirl,'' which was also longlisted for the 2023 James Cropper Wainwright Prize. The book was a winner of the 2023 Somerset Maugham Award. Her third book, ''Flight'', won the 2024 Edward Stanford Children’s Travel Book of the Year.

Bibliography

* Craig, Mya-Rose (January 2021). ''We Have a Dream''. Magic Cat Publishing.
* Craig, Mya-Rose (June 2022). '' Birdgirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future''. Penguin Random House.
* Craig, Mya-Rose (June 2023). ''Flight''. Puffin Books.

References

External links

Official website

2019 interview
from ''Bird Watching'' magazine

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Mya-Rose
2002 births
21st-century English memoirists
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
category:Birdwatchers
British Asian writers
British climate activists
British women environmentalists
British women memoirists
English conservationists
English people of Bangladeshi descent
English women bloggers
English women children's writers
English women columnists
English women non-fiction writers
Living people
People from Bath and North East Somerset
Writers from Bristol
Writers from Somerset