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If you’re ever lucky enough to tag along with Tom Myers and his bird club at Skyline School, you’ll most likely notice a few things: that Skyline in the early morning can be a breathtakingly beautiful place, and that if you have a question about birds – or the natural world in general – the man his students call “Teacher Tom” can almost certainly answer it.

Myers, who teaches third and fourth grade, has always been a nature lover, but it was in 2017 that he really turned his attention sky-ward. He was reading Kyo Maclear¡¯s book, Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation, and he and some friends went paddling at Smith and Bybee Wetlands in North èßäapp¹ÙÍø. They were able to identify some of the birds they saw, and Myers, moved by both that experience and Maclear¡¯s words on the importance of slowing down and taking notice, decided to put up a bird feeder in his backyard.

A variety of birds flocked to the feeder, including the species Myers refers to as his ¡°spark bird,¡± or the bird that really hooked him and solidified his identity as a birder.

¡°I was already starting to watch my feeders, and I was bringing binoculars canoeing, using my field guide to learn about the birds I saw,¡± he said. ¡°Then I noticed the Spotted Towhee in my guide and read online how common they were. It was a bird I decided I wanted to see, and that very day, one visited my backyard feeder station, and I was elated. Turns out that bird visited daily, and had probably lived in or near my yard for a long time, but that¡¯s one of the great joys of birding: it adds a whole new layer to looking at the world around you.¡±

A new way of looking at the natural world is exactly what Teacher Tom hopes to instill in his students, all of whom enthusiastically don their ¡°binos¡± every Wednesday morning to hike around Skyline¡¯s campus with him, their eyes and ears wide open to exciting discoveries.

¡°I hope they take some time outside of Bird Club to slow down, notice the plants and animals around them,¡± Myers said. ¡°Whether they¡¯re at school, at home, in a park, etc., once someone is excited about nature, they get to see the world through that lens no matter where they are.¡±

Myers launched the Skyline Bird Club in 2022 as part of the school¡¯s C.A.S. or ¡°Creativity Activity Service¡± clubs. At the time, he was already a bit of a birding celebrity on TikTok, where his had been attracting a larger and larger audience since the start of the COVID pandemic. Teacher Tom currently has 240K followers on the app, where every Sunday morning he introduces TikTokers to a new bird species and its song/call, habitat, range, diet, and behavior.

He thinks the videos¡¯ predictable charm ¨C they all follow the same basic format ¨C might be key to their popularity. ¡°I get a lot of comments and messages from people who say it¡¯s a part of their weekly routine.¡±

And soon even more nature lovers and bird-curious folks will have a chance to get to know Teacher Tom and benefit from his vast knowledge of the feathered kingdom. In June 2025, Timber Press will be publishing Myers¡¯ first book about birds.

¡°It¡¯s a field guide to the birds of the Pacific Northwest, written for kids,¡± Myers said, ¡°but I think it will appeal to people of all ages, and I hope it will be a good resource to someone in our region who is just starting to notice birds and want to try birding.¡±

For Myers, birding has become something he does reflexively. Like many passionate birders, he¡¯s started a ¡°life list¡± ¨C a list of all the species he¡¯s ever identified ¨C and he tries to add to it all the time.¡°Now I bird nearly every day after school, and most weekends,¡± he said. ¡°While driving in the car, looking out any window, going on any walk, doing yard work. I¡¯m sort of always birding.¡±?

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