GET TO KNOW | Queer Birders Norfolk
19 May 2026
My name is Rane. I co-organise the local lgbtqia+ hobbyist group and community – Queer Birders Norfolk – along with Anna and Amy. The group meets up about once a month throughout the year to visit local birding hotspots in and around Norwich. You can find us on instagram @queer_birders_norfolk where we post all of our events and you can ask for the link to join our community chat on WhatsApp where our members share sightings, talk about birds and organise meet ups. Anyone who identifies as LGBTQIA+ or questioning is welcome to join us!
What moved you to create the community?
We started Queer Birders Norfolk in 2023, out of a mutual interest in birding and after noticing the lack of queer birding groups locally. We all felt that the hobby can be intimidating, especially on the reserves where you might see more seasoned birders out with a lot of expensive equipment. The barriers to birding that exist for marginalised groups are not always obvious but they do exist and are evidenced by the lack of representation in these spaces. We wanted to encourage people of all abilities and experience to take up birding whether online, out the window or outside amongst nature. We think birding should be accessible to everyone and that everyone should be able to access natural spaces and the enjoyment of birding.
Explain the process of working with Thick & Tight and Annie Edwards
In January and May of 2025, we had the pleasure of meeting and working with Dan and El of Thick & Tight, and with dancer Annie Edwards. They joined us for two weekends, one in Winter and again at the start of Summer. The weekends consisted of a bird walk on Saturday and a dance workshop on the Sunday. We visited a couple of our favourite birding spots in the city at Whittlingham Lake and NWT Sweet Briar Marsh. After observing the cormorants resting on the posts and branches at Whittlingham, Dan and El gave us an insight into some of the process they use to create choreography by challenging us to formulate a dance, as a cormorant, whilst sticking to a set of rules: your left side must always be higher than your right side, at one point you will dive into the water and come back up and so on. As someone with no dance experience, I found this very challenging but the small group of us performed our dances and I’ve been told that the outcome was quite beautiful! When they returned in Summer, we got to join Annie in rehearsing parts of her performance of Dying Song – a series of portraits of different endangered bird species. It was really fantastic how Dan, El and Annie had captured the personalities and essence of different birds through movement.
I had the privilege of seeing Natural Behaviour last June (2025) at the Battersea Arts Centre in London. The show took me through every emotion and I loved how powerfully and unapologetically queer the entire thing was. The work was inclusive at its core, making access and inclusion a feature of the show with each performance coming with a written and audio description, which I really loved and hope they inspire more performances to do the same. Natural Behaviour was truly a show I will never forget! Go see it!
” both dance and birding can bring queer folks together and help people affirm their identities and place in the world. I think that creativity, movement and time in nature are all good for mental health, community and fostering a sense of belonging. ”
What did you discover in the sessions?
I really enjoyed having the opportunity to bring together the unlikely worlds of birding and dance. It was a pleasure to witness how inspiration for movement can be taken from nature. It was great to chat to El and Dan and find out about the work they were doing for Natural Behaviour and the other communities they had met and worked with across the country, gathering ideas about how people view the concepts of “natural” and “unnatural” things. We all agreed that the things that often get labelled as “unnatural” such as being queer or trans are actually extremely natural – homosexual behaviour has been observed in over 130 bird species so far! Diversity in sex determination and transitioning has been observed across the tree of life from slipper limpets to clown fish to ducks. Nature is queer and trans, and to be queer and trans is natural! For me it was interesting to see how both dance and birding can bring queer folks together and help people affirm their identities and place in the world. I think that creativity, movement and time in nature are all good for mental health, community and fostering a sense of belonging.
What is it about bird watching that inspires you?
For me, birdwatching has been a consistently grounding practice over the years, whether on my own or with the group. When I feel overwhelmed or stressed, I sit and watch and listen to birds and they calm me. Birds are diverse in their plumage, behaviour and lifestyles, just like people. I have loved being part of the community of Queer Birders. I enjoy learning from other birders, getting excited together about a sighting and sitting in a hide at dawn eating cookies that Anna has baked us all.
What advice would you give someone if they were interested in joining the group or creating their own group/community?
If you feel like Queer Birders Norfolk events might be for you, please join us! I’d encourage anyone feeling like a certain space doesn’t exist for them to make that space for themselves – you’ll soon find others who have been looking for the same place of belonging and connection.
What are your favourite local birds?
There are so many! I love going out to the coast and seeing curlew wading in the pools at Cley, the treecreepers in the woods at UEA, the gangs of long-tailed tits hopping between trees at Sweet Briar Marshes… we are very fond of the kingfisher we spot along the river Wensum in the city, and I can’t forget our gorgeous city pigeons!