Average age of Bird Watchers (2 Viewers)

[lmans66]

Great little article here about the age of bird watchers but also the number in millions per 'age range'..... Before you read this, take a guess in your head and see how close you come to what this article puts forth.... jim

What Is The Average Age Of Birdwatchers | Birda

We discuss the average age of birdwatchers and break down some fascinating stats when it comes to around home vs away from home wildlife watchers.

birda.org

 

[Andy Adcock]

I did get this almost right.

Clearly attributable to the removal of offensive eponyms

'Recent articles published by the New York Times and on the National Audubon Society’s website state that the birding community is getting younger and becoming more diverse.'

 

[rollingthunder]

Is it getting 'younger and more diverse' over here? Certainly if you look at the photos on the RSPB house magazine it is but in reality I have not found that to be the case if my local birding and twitching is anything to go by.....

Good birding - whatever your age, colour or gender.

Laurie -

 

[Andy Adcock]

Is it getting 'younger and more diverse' over here? Certainly if you look at the photos on the RSPB house magazine it is but in reality I have not found that to be the case if my local birding and twitching is anything to go by.....

Good birding - whatever your age, colour or gender.

Laurie -

Come on RT, you know it should be 'gender or genders'

 

[Farnboro John]

Looking into any of these matters in a hobby undertaken exclusively by volunteers is insane. Especially since if those who equate skin-deep matters like sex age and colour with diversity are right, one ought to expect that the groups will like different things.

John

 

[Xenospiza]

If I look at birding in the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Germany, there are many young birders.
I think that the availability of easily accessible resources such as ebird or observation.org are really helpful to show young budding birders that they are not alone.

 

[rollingthunder]

It's the sort of stuff you would expect from 'over the pond'🙄

If you claim to be anything other than what was on your birth certificate than you are a gen.....derr imo ;-)

Laurie -

 

[rollingthunder]

in addition I was young and all alone at 13yo, I am now 66, it never bothered me - I simply mooched about and never saw anyone else birdwatching and this was in cosmopolitan SE London. I am certainly no Luddite and have taken advantage of everything the Internet and digital cameras etc have to offer. I have to say, and I would, that having to learn stuff like ID and calls by using fieldcraft, taking notes and actually watching stuff has stood me in good stead over the years. I increasingly bump into parasites, often without binoculars, who only take from the hobby - I make no contact and have no time for them.....

Good birding -

Laurie -

 

[Farnboro John]

If I look at birding in the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Germany, there are many young birders.
I think that the availability of easily accessible resources such as ebird or observation.org are really helpful to show young budding birders that they are not alone.

Birding is for individualists (witness the many, many different ways we all approach what most non-birders think is one hobby): those who need to be told they are not alone will never get into it.

John

 

[MiddleRiver]

I increasingly bump into parasites, often without binoculars, who only take from the hobby

May I ask what that means? Just curious... Lacking binos, are they birding?

 

[Farnboro John]

May I ask what that means? Just curious... Lacking binos, are they birding?

Mainly they are photographers looking for birds that are giving views suitable for close-range photography. They generally don't know what they are looking at (or care) but they are increasingly using bird news information to target rarities and scarcities. They have no fieldcraft or empathy with wildlife and are, as Laurie says, parasites in the worst way, causing reckless disturbance.

John

 

[Xenospiza]

Birding is for individualists (witness the many, many different ways we all approach what most non-birders think is one hobby): those who need to be told they are not alone will never get into it.

John

From what I hear at twitches, birders love to talk about birds and talking to yourself really isn't much fun.

You going on Birdforum shows that you enjoy the (virtual) company too.

 

[rollingthunder]

John has summed it up more politely than I care to whether out in the field or online it's all facets of the hobby. These people just take and are a pain in the @rse. When asked where so and so is or is the so and so showing? I first ask where are your binoculars?

Laurie -

 

[Farnboro John]

From what I hear at twitches, birders love to talk about birds and talking to yourself really isn't much fun.

You going on Birdforum shows that you enjoy the (virtual) company too.

Absolutely, and there's always the chance to learn a new technique or approach, or site, or ID trick or whatever. But I don't need anyone to tell me going birding is good, or an OK thing to do (after all, many of the ordinary public think we are weird) or anything else to motivate me. The birds do that.

The sort of person who needs approval from others (i.e. the social media needy) for their lifestyle probably isn't suited to birding.

Incidentally, when birding solo, I talk to myself quite a lot, in much the same way as Bill Oddie described in LBBB: a kind of running commentary on what is going on, and sometimes what I think about it. The literary might call it stream of consciousness.

Cheers

John

 

[Mysticete]

Birding is for individualists (witness the many, many different ways we all approach what most non-birders think is one hobby): those who need to be told they are not alone will never get into it.

John

I think diversity simply makes a hobby more welcoming to others, and decreases the likelihood someone is judged by their race or sex. It also serves to break assumptions and can provide a more comfortable and even safe environment for new birders.

I have a friend who is of Filipino descent who has had issues with local ebird folk dismissing his reports for seemingly no reason. He will report a rare bird at a known site, and observe it with several other birders at the same time. Unless he includes images, his report will be rejected, while the several birders who observed the bird at the EXACT same time and even mention him in his report will all have their reports rejected. And I have also heard report of male birders (sometimes much better older birders...) hitting on or otherwise acting inappropriately with female birders. We can just say that gender and race don't matter, but that doesn't change the fact that it does impact the life and experiences of others when they are out birding, in ways that we don't deal with.

 

[Mysticete]

Mainly they are photographers looking for birds that are giving views suitable for close-range photography. They generally don't know what they are looking at (or care) but they are increasingly using bird news information to target rarities and scarcities. They have no fieldcraft or empathy with wildlife and are, as Laurie says, parasites in the worst way, causing reckless disturbance.

John

Photographers are the reason why in some part of the country you have to sign a blood oath to Crom before another birder will even remotely suggest the location of an owl...

 

[jurek]

That 's a weird article, because it suggests that 1 in 15 to 1 in 10 of adult Americans is a wildlife watcher... and about 1 in 30 is a birdwatcher. This must be a big overestimate, even allowing for very beginners and casual watchers?

About the young birders, the worrying is trying to rely on Google Lens and similar AI. They seem unaware that most birds in the field, including disproportionately many good birds, are seen briefly and at a distance when one must use own ID skills. And that AI algorithms as of 2023 are unreliable for birds.

 

[Mysticete]

Wildlife Watcher is a pretty vague term. Like I know a lot of folks who have feeders at there house, who wouldn't identify themselves as birders. I think there is a difference between folks who like to walk around a local wildlife sanctuary and see the deer (which presumably would fall under wildlife watching), and the folks visiting a sewage plant for a rare shorebird. I suspect the coverage is slanted in other ways as well...the herping community is pretty major group and yet they score pretty low here.

 

[Mysticete]

That 's a weird article, because it suggests that 1 in 15 to 1 in 10 of adult Americans is a wildlife watcher... and about 1 in 30 is a birdwatcher. This must be a big overestimate, even allowing for very beginners and casual watchers?

About the young birders, the worrying is trying to rely on Google Lens and similar AI. They seem unaware that most birds in the field, including disproportionately many good birds, are seen briefly and at a distance when one must use own ID skills. And that AI algorithms as of 2023 are unreliable for birds.

Except for the super new young birders, the people I see abuse Merlin and similar sources for bird ID locally are often middle-aged and older.

I mean, as much as I hate to say it, my experience with young birders is that they have better ears than me, pick up on more nuanced ID marks, and often develop a more encyclopedic knowledge of birds. Granted, locally young birders are scarce on the ground....I think I have run into only a couple, but they were a bigger percentage in higher population areas.

 

[jurek]

Yes, young birders are often super-motivated.

But I am worried that some people may not realize that AI will not get them far in wildlife. In a sense, beta-version or alpha-version ID algorithms distract people. And may put shame on an otherwise good birding website. Sure, future may be different, but not now.