In the 2012 HBO documentary "Birders: The Central Park Effect", Starr Saphir - one of the central characters - explains her passion for birding, "Looking at birds really takes away the sadness in a lot of us. Looking at birds takes you out of yourself into the real world." Saphir dedicated her life to sharing that passion with others. She led tours through Central Park four times a week for nearly forty years. Her tours began at 7:30 in the morning, and sometimes didn't conclude until the day's end. It was not out of the ordinary to see as many as 50 different types of birds on one of her tours, and for this the most she charged was $8. She was still leading tours until only months ago, despite suffering from metastatic breast cancer, cataracts, a bad back, a limp and arthritis. Saphir died this past week, at 73, of complications from the cancer.
Born on Long Island in 1939, she grew up in Brooklyn. Her given name was Muriel, but she took on the name Starr that was at first a nickname and later a stage name during an earlier career as an actress in off-Bradway and traveling theater productions. Having divorced once, she was separated from her second husband.
Ms. Saphir’s love of birds began when she was a child, but she started leading tours in 1975 when no one showed up to conduct a guided walk tour in Central Park. It was then that she discovered the joy she got out of teaching.
Central Park is considered a birding mecca. It is an oasis for the major flyaways that converge over the city. The roughly 200 committed birders of Central Park share sighting information in a big notebook kept in the park's boathouse. More than 280 species have been identified in the park, of which Ms. Saphir had identified 259.
Well regarded among the birding community for her skills of detection, in sight and sound, Ms. Saphir counted 2,582 different species of birds during her life. Her favorite was the curulean warbler, and she requested that people contribute to the protection of its habitat in Colombia rather than send flowers to her funeral. She is survived by two daughters.
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