In May 2020, Christian Cooper was bird-watching in Central Park when his life was changed forever. Simply trying to catch the sight of some of the 200 species that live there, the now 59-year-old ended up being caught in a racially charged attack.
After Cooper asked a woman to keep her dog on a leash, she called the police and falsely claimed that he was threatening her. Cooper quickly took out his phone and started to record the confrontation where he caught the woman saying: “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.” Thankfully, justice was served, and Cooper came away unscathed.
Now, he is back in the public eye but on his terms, hosting a National Geographic TV series called Extraordinary Birder. According to National Geographic, Cooper will take viewers into the “wild, wonderful and unpredictable world of birds.”
“Whether braving stormy seas in Alaska for puffins, trekking into rainforests in Puerto Rico for parrots, or scaling a bridge in Manhattan for a peregrine falcon, he does whatever it takes to learn about these extraordinary feathered creatures and show us the remarkable world in the sky above,” the network said in a statement.
Christian explains he has loved bird watching since the age of 10 and jumped at the chance to be involved in such a TV program. “I love spreading the gospel of birding,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. He also explained how he was looking forward to inspiring more people “to stop and watch and listen and really start appreciating the absolutely spectacular creatures that we have among us.”
The channel has not yet announced the premiere date of the program but keep an eye out for Cooper on your screens in the near future.
