In this episode, we sit down with Trentön Schulz-Franco, founder of the Special Bird Service Society in Canada. SBS is an outdoor community rooted in Victoria and Vancouver that is redefining what belonging in nature can look like. Special Bird Service centers Black, Indigenous, and other people of colour, as well as 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, creating intentional spaces where people feel safe, seen, and genuinely welcome outdoors.

Our conversation explores the difference between access and belonging, the personal journey that led Trentön to build SBS, and the responsibility outdoor leaders carry when guiding people on colonized land. We talk about healing, joy, storytelling, and the power of community-led spaces to transform our experience of nature. Trentön shares affirming moments from SBS gatherings, the challenges of growth, and what it takes to protect a community’s soul while expanding its reach.

This episode is a reminder that birding and outdoor culture can be places of care, accountability, and connection when community comes first. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to build a space where people truly belong, this conversation is for you.

BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin

In Color Birding Club

Today we’re joined by Vikas Bhatia (Vikas Wildlife) — wildlife filmmaker, photographer, and composer whose work blends sound and image into immersive stories from the Amazon to the Arctic.

We talk about what it means to make the environment a main character, how his background playing in bands shaped his editing rhythm, and the creative leap of composing original music for his wildlife films. Vikas shares field stories from extreme habitats, the patience required to capture animal behavior, and how he balances brand collaborations with his artistic voice.

We also dig into gear, risk, creative burnout, and advice for emerging storytellers trying to find their lane in a noisy, algorithm-driven world.

This episode is about storytelling as craft, adventure as discipline, and creating art that honors wild places.

BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin

In Color Birding Club

In this episode of the Bird Joy Podcast, we’re joined by Sam DeJarnett, creator and host of the Always Be Birdin’ Podcast, for a powerful conversation about joy, resistance, and collective liberation through birding. Sam shares her journey into birding through wildlife rehabilitation and her experiences with exclusion in traditional birding spaces. These experiences pushed her to build something new rather than walk away.

We explore how birding can serve as protest and community care, how dominant narratives in conservation have excluded Black and Brown birders, and what becomes possible when knowledge is shared horizontally rather than through gatekeeping. Sam also unpacks her mycelium metaphor for community, offering a vision of birding spaces as interconnected networks where supporting one another strengthens the whole.

This episode centers on birding as joy, birding as resistance, and birding as a tool for imagining more inclusive, liberatory futures, all wrapped up in a fun and thoughtful Bird Joy Lightning Round that captures Sam’s philosophy and heart.

BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin

In Color Birding Club