Muriel Saphir (1939-2013), known by her nickname Starr Saphir, was an American birder in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

who led bird walks in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

several times a week for nearly 40 years.

Early life

Starr Saphir was born Muriel Theodora Saphir on July 21, 1939. Though she was born on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, she grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and started birding in Prospect Park, regularly traveling from her Bay Ridge home. She cited a black-and-white warbler as her "spark bird", or bird species which triggers a broader interest in birds or birding. She saw it when she was six years old, on the side of the road when her father's car broke down on a trip to her grandparents' house, and recognized it from looking through her grandmother's

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

illustrations. Other than birding, she was also a fan of the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

before they moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1958. She was a

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

major at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

and worked for a time as an actor in

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

and other productions. She lived in California for a time, pursuing her acting career, and was active in the birding community there.

Birding

Saphir was an avid birder, and offered to lead a walk for the first time in 1975, when a planned Audubon Society walk did not have a leader. She discovered that she liked teaching and wound up leading them regularly, usually four times per week in

, for almost 40 years. Walk participants paid a small fee, which started at $3 and eventually rose to $8. Saphir called the park her "office", but was determined to keep costs low and barely made enough to eke by. Her walks could attract more than 20 people, including repeat patrons, at least one of whom regularly attended for more than 20 years. She would guide people, holding

binoculars Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes (binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be held ...

and wearing a trademark blue

bandana A kerchief (from the Old French ''couvrechief'', "cover head"), also known as a bandana, bandanna, or "Wild Rag" (in cowboy culture), is a triangular or square piece of cloth tied around the head, face or neck for protective or decorative purpos ...

, through the Ramble and North Woods sections of the park on outings that could last five hours. She was interested in keeping track of lists and numbers, and would often aim for specific numbers of species on her walks, extending their length or deciding to end in order to leave with a round number. People on her walks were expected to keep to ethical birding best practices intended to minimize disturbances to the birds. Saphir developed a reputation for her skills with bird identification by sight and by sound, and the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' said she had "seemingly supernatural powers of hearing and sight". Though her specialty was birds, she would also teach about

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

and dragonflies. In May 2005, Saphir was a guest on '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', featured in a segment in which she introduces O'Brien to birding. Filmmaker Jeffrey Kimball included Saphir as one of the major characters in his 2012 HBO documentary, ''Birders: The Central Park Effect'' in 2012. Kimball described her as "the

doyenne Doyen and doyenne (from the French word ''doyen'', ''doyenne'' in the feminine grammatical gender) is the senior ambassador by length of service in a particular country. In the English language, the meaning of doyen (feminine form: doyenne) h ...

or the matriarch of the park". She persisted giving regular bird walks despite a range of health issues, including

cataracts A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble w ...

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

, a

limp A limp is a type of asymmetric abnormality of the gait. Limping may be caused by pain, weakness, neuromuscular imbalance, or a skeletal deformity. The most common underlying cause of a painful limp is physical trauma; however, in the absen ...

, and back problems, and after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She did not have a computer and was concerned that the introduction of technology to the pastime would make it inaccessible for some. She did come to use a cell phone to share sightings while out in the park, but otherwise used notebooks to track her sightings. She left 80 such books when she died, tallying 259 different species just in Central Park. Her " life list", a tally of all birds a person has seen at any location, totaled 2,582. Her favorite was the cerulean warbler.

Personal life and death

Saphir was married twice, first to Michael Henisse and later to Stephen Gussman, from whom she was separated when she died, and she had two daughters, Shawna Leigh and Lara Willis. In 2002, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and told it would be terminal, which led her to turn to birding and the walks even more. She died of complications due to metastatic breast cancer on February 10, 2013, at the age of 73. The Linnaean Society of New York's March/April 2013 newsletter was a collection of memorials to Saphir from several people in the birding community.

References

External links

* {{Central Park Birdwatchers 1939 births 2013 deaths Deaths from breast cancer People from Manhattan People from Long Island Central Park