Tell us why we should unexpectedly come to love your hobby.
Birding, you’ll be truly surprised by the variety of just birds around you. Perks: it gets you out on trails, low cost of entry (binoculars), the data you produce of birds is used for research, and you’re just observing so you don’t need to worry about harming animals.
I remember when everyone was excited about playing Pokemon Go and wishing that there was a way to do something similar but in the wilderness rather than cities. I wanted to be able to wander around the wilds trying to encounter strange and rare creatures. Then I realised I had just invented birdwatching.
Can you explain a bit more about producing data that helps researchers? That’s intriguing to me.
Yeah man. So if you use the eBird app or website to track your birds you see (use Merlin bird id for id help) Cornell university actually maintains that and uses it. These sites and apps are highly highly recommended and almost mandatory if you find yourself doing birding often. Anyways, as you populate you list with sightings and areas you’ve found birds they can map out so much. Stuff like habitats, ranges, changes in these, population sizes, migration timings, and I’m sure there’s more I’m not thinking of. These are all important with human influenced climate change and habitat destruction.
