Gene Stratton-Porter was known as “The Bird Woman”. It was a nickname she acquired
as a child when her mother called her “the little Bird Woman”, and it stuck with her for the
rest of her life. A feature article in a 1904 Muncie newspaper was titled “The Bird Woman of
the Limberlost”. Gene capitalized on the name by writing herself into her two most popular
novels, Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost, as the character of the Bird Woman who befriends Freckles and Elnora. Gene’s love of nature was broad, but of all the living things which are a part of nature her greatest love was for birds.
It might be thought that this love encompassed every type of bird—but that would not be
entirely true. There were, in fact, two types which she definitely did not love, and actually
wished for their extinction. In her own words: “If I have any influence whatever, I shall most
earnestly use it in advocating the complete extermination of cowbirds and English sparrows”.
What was it about these two species that could bring about such vitriol and hate from a
passionate bird-lover?
The English sparrow, also known as house sparrow, is a species from Europe and Asia
that was introduced to the United States in New York in 1852. They spread rapidly across
this country and by 1886, the year Gene married Charles Porter, they had already invaded
the entire Midwest and were making their way across the Great Plains. The Bird Woman
considered English sparrows to be a threat to her beloved native Limberlost species as they
would attack other birds, destroy their nests, break their eggs, and kill their young. She
considered them to have “disgusting habits” and called them “...little villains...[which]...were
always hanging around ready for any mischief they might do.”
Cowbirds, specifically the brown-headed cowbird in Indiana, are nest parasites which the
Bird Woman found to be intolerable, even though they are native, not introduced like the
English sparrow. Cowbirds do not build their own nests in which to lay their eggs, they lay in
the nests of other birds and let a different species rear their young. The Bird Woman witnessed cowbirds destroying host bird eggs when they laid their own, and considered them to be lazy slackers since they did not raise their own young. Modern science has documented retaliatory behavior from cowbirds, which watch the nests they laid their eggs in, and if they see that their own eggs have been thrown out, will ransack or destroy the nest of the offenders. This amazing vengeance has been labeled “mafia behavior”! Although the Bird Woman apparently did not know about this nasty side of her despised cowbirds, it did not matter. She still thought of them as “such unspeakable pests they are worthy of mention only to advise their extinction.”