Tej Beniwal’s passion for birding started at 9 years old, watching a bright yellow American goldfinch dashing through trees in his backyard. Then they started crashing into his windows.
Beniwal, now a senior at Jenks High School, is one of Tulsa’s youngest bird conservationists — determined to recruit other teens and the city in limiting bird-window collisions. He started a birding club to share his passion and gave a TED Talk at his school championing conservation.
Last year, he broadened his efforts across the metro and inspired Mayor Monroe Nichols to pass a city-wide proclamation protecting Tulsa’s avian residents.
“It’s kind of a struggle to make anything when there’s nothing there before,” Beniwal said. “Such an official recognition was definitely something I really cherished.”
More than one billion birds collide with windows in the United States every year. To change that locally, Beniwal found vendors to donate window decals and distributed them across Jenks. He worked with three Reasor’s grocery stores to put up flyers about window collisions in aisles with bird feed. His club at the high school now has more than 20 members.
Beniwal joined Tulsa Audubon Society in 2023 to broaden his efforts and worked with other members to promote bird-friendly lighting in the city through a “Lights Out Tulsa Day”
encouraging residents and businesses to adopt bird-friendly lighting. After weeks of emailing and calling the mayor’s office, Nichols approved and signed a proclamation last year.
“He is very hardworking, he is very dedicated,” said Mary Jackson, president of the Tulsa Audubon Society. “It makes me very happy and hopeful to see the younger generation get involved.”
Like Beniwal, Jackson has carried a passion for birding all her life. She first met Beniwal at Flycatcher Trail — an outdoor classroom at Jenks High School. In exchange for service hours, students help maintain the plants and water features during work days. On one shift, Beniwal helped pull a rat snake out of a Purple Martin bird box.
Beniwal and other Jenks students help with the Tulsa Audubon Society’s annual Christmas bird count by volunteering at Oxley Nature Center.
“He’s really good at inspiring new things for people to learn about,” said Beck Schissel, a senior at Jenks High School. “When I’m talking to him about birds, he’s never once been dismissive.”
Like many in Beniwal’s orbit, Schissel has a deep love for wildlife and nature but didn’t have an outlet for expressing it. While playing together on the varsity tennis team, Schissel heard there was an open slot for vice president of the birding club and volunteered.
Schissel has been on many hikes with his family but never tried to look for or take photos of birds. He was stunned by a barn owl on his first club outing at Ray Harral Nature Center in April 2025.
“I always thought birds are — they’re OK, you know — they’re more on the boring side of the species. But now I couldn’t think that’s farther from the truth,” Schissel said. “He’s kinda shown me there’s so much variety, and there’s so many cool things you can look at.”
Beniwal isn’t sure yet where he’ll attend college next fall, but he knows he’ll continue his conservation work. He hopes to attend Stanford University and study biochemistry on the pre-med track.
“The birds are all around you once you start taking the time to notice,” he said. “All these different little things that take minimal effort for the birds — and birds aren’t just a pretty background.”
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