Melissa Fratello

About the Author

Melissa Fratello is an ardent naturalist, photographer, tinkerer, and writer. She has worked to advance a more equitable and approachable birding community, supporting Feminist Bird Club chapters in Tucson and beyond, and currently directs Tucson Audubon Society, which she is guiding through a renaming process. She feels strongly that birders owe it to the birds they observe to protect their precious and quickly disappearing habitats, and that birding can serve as a most wonderful gateway to conservation action and as a cure to the consumerism that ails us. When she’s not working, she’s gardening, cooking, or exploring the far flung reaches of the Sky Islands—peeping at plants, listening for birds, and always hoping to happen upon a snake.