In 2020, Christian Cooper’s life was thrust into the spotlight after an unrelated white woman, Amy Cooper—later dubbed “The Central Park Karen”—falsely accused him of threatening her while he was birdwatching in the part of Central Park known as The Ramble.
Three years later, Cooper, 61, launched the National Geographic show Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper, which earned him a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Personality in June 2024.
In his acceptance speech, Cooper reflected on his journey as a Black, queer man navigating the world of birdwatching, saying:
“This is an unexpected journey from being a closeted queer kid in the 1970s and a Black kid in the almost totally then-all-white field of birding, which makes this all the more thrilling.”
He added that the world has changed for the better and declared that, “No matter what anybody says or does, we are not going back. We will only move forward together.”
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When Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper was first announced, Nat Geo WILD described it as a global adventure showcasing the beauty and importance 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,” the producers told The Independent. “He does whatever it takes to learn about these extraordinary, feathered creatures and show us the remarkable world in the sky above.”
The show aired for one season, with its final episode filmed in Alabama, concluding in July 2023.
In addition to the show, Cooper released Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World, a memoir that took readers beyond the viral Central Park incident and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up.
He also launched Feathered Friends, an afterschool program through the New York City Audubon.
“Volunteers go take the school kids out to go birdwatching. We get them outside of the school. We get them out into nature,” he told People Magazine of the program.
“A lot of these kids, their life is a sea of concrete or pixels, and that’s it. We’re like, ‘No, we’re going to go out into the woods, and we’re going to see what’s out there. We’re going to listen. We’re going to look, we’re going to drink in the sunshine and the green.'”
Cooper gained global attention in May 2020 when he asked a white woman to leash her dog in a protected area of New York’s Central Park, where he was birdwatching and where dog leashing is required.
Amy Cooper (no relation), later dubbed “The Central Park Karen,” was filmed falsely pleading with a 911 operator to send the cops because a Black man was threatening her life.
The video went viral, amassing over 45 million views. She was later charged with filing a false police report before the charges were dropped the following year.
“I don’t think there’s an African American person in America who hasn’t experienced something like this at some point,” Christian Cooper said about the incident at the time.
The confrontation took place on the same day George Floyd, another Black man, was killed by police in Minneapolis. The murder sparked nationwide protests against police brutality.
@apnews Christian Cooper shares how life has been since his 2020 viral video at Central Park. Three years ago the bird watcher had a tense run-in with Amy Cooper, who was walking her dog off the leash in his refuge. #ChristianCooper #AmyCooper #centralpark ♬ original sound – The Associated Press
Amy Cooper has since completed racial bias training, which her therapist described to the court as a “moving experience.” She was fired by her employer, an investment firm, following the incident.
She later filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, alleging racial discrimination by her former employer. However, the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
